Season 9-9 - Mr Monk's Shocking Discovery
by MonkNotJunk
Summary: Adrian's world is rocked when he finds a key that unwraps a long held secret.
1. Chapter 1

It had started out the loveliest of days on that mid-August morning in 2017. Natalie was happy that she and Adrian were about to get back to a sense of normalcy, just as soon as they helped Adrian's brother Ambrose and his wife Heather pack for Boston. Adrian was happy that he was finally going to get a chance to clean up the old Monk homestead. He had tried to be respectful, since Ambrose was the one paying the bills and maintaining the home, but his skin literally crawled every time he went over to the house he grew up in and saw piles of papers and bills and items which should have been thrown away years before. It would be good having Ambrose nearby, especially since he was becoming braver and taking on new adventures. But, right now, his mind was focused on one thing - closing down that old house and sealing in the bad memories that those walls contained.

* * *

"Ambrose, Heather, we're here!" Natalie Monk said knocking on the screen door. "Ready to roll up our sleeves and start getting you packed.

Heather came walking towards the door, holding a pitcher of lemonade, with Ambrose following closely behind her. Pregnancy wore well on her, giving her a glow that made her appear much younger than her 48 years would indicate. Considering that Natalie was now an expert on high-risk pregnancies, she and Heather were suddenly growing much closer, a phenomenon that strangely drew the two brothers closer as well. There was nothing like the bond of family ties and the knowledge that wherever one was, there was always someone there with whom one had a shared history and shared worldview. Familiarity could often breed contempt, but in this case familiarity bred comfort which was fitting since the word familiar itself came from the latin,_ familiaris_, which related to belonging to a family or on a family footing.

"Coming!" Heather said as Ambrose scurried around her trying to grab the pitcher from her.

"Heather…hand that to me." He said nervously. Of course, using the words Ambrose and 'nervous' in the same sentence was to risk a charge of redundancy. He was naturally a worry wort and now that his wife was carrying his child, this tendency had increased exponentially.

"Ambrose, stop! Seriously? I've got it. I'm fine." She scolded, holding the pitcher in her right hand and opening the screen door with her left. "Come on in!" she told Adrian and Natalie. "Glad to see you. Maybe you can do something to keep _him_ busy."

"I'm just trying to help." Ambrose said, like a wounded child.

"I know you are, but you're driving me nuts. Why don't you go someplace and start working on cleaning some of this stuff up with your brother." She suggested. "Adrian would love that, wouldn't you, Adrian?" she said.

Adrian nodded and smiled. "I've been looking forward to it all week. Come on Ambrose, lets go see what needs to be done."

"Everything!" Heather said. "Not only is my husband a pack rat, but your parents were pack rats and we have to go through all of that stuff because we're not taking it with us to Boston."

"We can move some of it, can't we?" Ambrose asked.

"Yes. Some. But the majority of it has to go. Out with the old! Just keep telling yourself that! We don't know if we're even going to have room to store things, so our first priority needs to be downsizing so that we can get everything we need for when the baby arrives." Heather said.

"I'll take care of him." Adrian said, taking Ambrose by the arm. "Hey, big brother. Why don't we start upstairs in Dad's office."

"Dad's office?" Ambrose said. "But he might get mad if we throw away his things."

"He won't get mad. Trust me. I started to clean things up several years ago when I was here at Halloween. There's so much stuff in there, he won't miss a thing." Said Adrian.

"Are you sure?" Ambrose asked.

"Trust me." Adrian said, as they climbed the stairs to the forbidden room above.

* * *

"So, what's it like?" Heather asked, as she and Natalie went into the kitchen and Heather finally did something with the pitcher of lemonade.

Natalie looked at her with curiosity in her eyes. "What's what like?"

"Being at a crossroads with Adrian. Possibly looking at slowing down a little. Not being so much the guy always on call for everybody's murder or crime?" Heather asked.

"Oh, I expect we'll still be very busy. You know people aren't going to leave him alone. Not with his powers of observation." She said.

"How do you feel about that?" asked Heather.

"Honestly? I feel like we are just about in a perfect spot in life. I can't imagine him being happy not working, so we're at the stage where he can take what jobs he wants and reject those he doesn't want. We don't really have money worries. We are at a fantastic spot in our relationship. Honestly, we've never been happier. We have two happy healthy children. We'll be living near Julie. I'm loving it!" Natalie said.

"And, we'll be nearby!" Heather reminded her.

"Yes! You and my parents. They are moving to Boston too!" Natalie said.

"Really? What do you guys think about _that_?" Heather asked.

"Uh…I think it will be good for Lee and Abby to have their grandparents nearby. Where do you want to start on packing by the way?" she asked.

Heather blushed. "Oh yeah. That _is _ what you're here for isn't it? We can start over here with the dishes. Remember that Ambrose likes to have everything numbered."

"I remember. Came from their mother." Natalie said. "And the infamous mug number 9. Adrian told me about that one."

"Yeah, Ambrose still gets upset whenever it gets brought up. Swears he didn't mean to break it." Said Heather.

"Poor Ambrose." Natalie said, folding out a cardboard box to place the dishes in.

"Poor Adrian. I just don't get it." Said Heather.

"Get what?" Natalie asked.

"How did two men who grew up in a home that was essentially run by two people who didn't know what it meant to demonstrate what true love was…how did they end up being such decent, sensitive guys?" Heather asked.

"I think Jack tried. A least for a while. He used to read Sherlock Holmes to his boys and set up a play set for them." Said Natalie.

"Yeah, I heard about that." Said Heather. "Boys never played on it. What it must have been like growing up in that household."

* * *

Upstairs, Adrian and Ambrose walked into Jack Monk's study. Other than perhaps a few more layers of dust, nothing had been done to it since Adrian angrily took a white plastic bag and started haphazardly filling it with items, only to be stopped by a phone call from Leland which led him to believe that Ambrose had been poisoned.

"Wow. Exactly the same." Adrian said. "Do you ever even come in here?"

"No. Dad wouldn't like it." Ambrose said.

"Dad doesn't even think about this place. When is the last time you've seen him?" asked Adrian.

"He dropped by about a week after Heather and I got married. Only stayed for about ten minutes. Said he had a delivery to make up in Portland and wanted to say hi." Ambrose said.

"Well, at least he stopped by." Adrian replied. "So..where do you want to get started?"

"You're the one whose idea it is to touch Dad's things. You choose." Ambrose said.

"Ambrose, you can't take his office with you. Remember…you're downsizing." Adrian replied. "You start over there with his books. I'll be over here going through his file drawers."

* * *

After about three hours of hard work, Natalie decided it was time for a break.

"You up for some lunch?" she asked Heather.

"Oh gosh, yes. We're starving." Heather laughed, holding her tummy.

Natalie smiled. "I'll go ask the guys if they want something to eat. What do you feel like? You get to choose."

Heather's eyes brightened with excitement and she smiled "I would like…a couple of cheese enchiladas, extra cheese, and a bowl of Spanish rice!"

"Okay. Is Habaneros still there?" Natalie asked.

"Yeah. Place is just the same." Heather replied.

"Okay. I'll go take their order and see if maybe Adrian or Ambrose want to go with me to pick it up." Natalie said.

When Natalie got upstairs, she was surprised to hear that all was not harmonious. Ambrose was distressed and Adrian was being his typical impatient self.

"Ambrose, put that back in the bag." Adrian said.

"No! You can't throw that away!" Ambrose replied.

"It's just a stupid program." Adrian said. "Why would you want to keep it?"

"It's from the circus. Dad took us there. We saw the flying acrobats." Ambrose replied.

"I remember that trip. He also took us into the area where they had the circus sideshow – the six legged dog, the two headed cow…" Adrian said.

"Oh yeah! That was neat!" Ambrose said dreamily.

"Neat?!" Adrian exclaimed. "Ambrose, he tried to leave us there! I heard him try to sell us to the owner for a couple thousand dollars!"

Ambrose looked at Adrian, "Adrian, he was just joking. You have never learned to take a joke."

"Boys! Boys!" Natalie said, stepping into the room. "No arguing! Break it up! Now Adrian, if you and Ambrose can't learn to play together nicely then we're just going to have to go home!"

Adrian snarled his face at her and folded his arms. "Very funny."

She laughed. "I can be. I just came up here to take your guys order. Heather and I want to go pick up some Mexican. What would you like?"

"Mexican? Which Mexican? Who is she talking about, Adrian?" Ambrose asked.

Adrian rolled his eyes. "Mexican _food,_ Ambrose. She means Mexican food."

"Oh." Ambrose said, blankly, then looked up with excitement. "I like tacos!"

"Great! That was simple. One Taco dinner. You want Guacamole with that?" she asked.

"I don't know, do I?" Ambrose replied.

"Yeah. You would like guacamole." She responded.

"Okay, then yes. I'll have guacamole with that Natalie." Ambrose said smiling.

"Excellent, and you my handsome hunk of a man?" Natalie asked.

Adrian smiled. "Flattery will get you everywhere." He said. "Do they have just plain grilled chicken?"

Natalie looked at him, contorting her mouth. "I imagine so."

"Okay, then I would like plain grilled chicken, with sautéed peppers on the side…in a separate container…some plain rice…in a separate container…and a dollop of guacamole." He said.

"On the side?" Natalie asked.

"You know me too well." He said.

She winked at him and said, "like nobody else."

"Natalie!" Adrian said, blushing.

"I didn't mean it _that_ way, silly!" she replied.

"Well, my brother _has _always been a regular Casanova." Ambrose said, joining in on the fun.

Adrian twitched his neck and fake laughed, suddenly feeling self-conscious at the attention. "Very funny, you guys. Ha..ha…" he said, as Natalie came up to him and lightly punched him in the arm.

"Oh, we're just teasing…" she said. "Did you want anything else?"

Adrian grimaced. He had gone to putting back a drawer in Jack's desk when it got stuck. "No. I don't think so." He said, distracted, as he wiggled the drawer, trying to get it to fit.

"Don't scuff that. Dad won't be happy." Ambrose said.

Adrian looked up. "We're selling this." He said, taking the drawer out of the hole and putting it on top of the desk. He examined the side rails of the drawer closely for anything might cause it to hang up, and then bent down and peered inside the hole in the desk.

"What the?" he said, reaching his arm inside the drawer.

"What?" Natalie asked, leaning forward as Ambrose did the same.

Adrian fished around for a moment and then pulled out a single key, attached to a satin ribbon through the key hole. He held it up to his face and then turned to show it to Ambrose and Natalie.

"What have we here?" he asked, his eyes dancing with excitement and a smile on his face.

* * *

That single discovery kept Adrian and Ambrose busy for the next forty five minutes while Natalie hurried out and picked up some food with Heather. Much of the time she was gone, they argued like school boys over whether or not they should try to find what the key went to. They could tell that it was the kind of key that would go to either a lock box or a safe, but beyond that they didn't know. In the end, by the time Natalie and Heather came back home with the food, Adrian was seated on the floor ripping the lining out of a leather chair while Ambrose was pacing and talking about how much trouble Adrian was going to be in when Dad saw what he had done.

Natalie walked into the room. "What… are you doing?"she asked, shocked at the display.

Adrian smiled and reached inside the bottom of the chair and pulled out a metal lock box, about twice the size of a shoe box.

"This!" he said, with pride. "I'm uncovering this!"

She walked towards him slowly…"What is it?"

Adrian smiled, clutching the box. "I…I don't know? It might be all of Jack Monk's deep dark hidden secrets!"

"Adrian, you put that down. If Dad wanted us to see those things, he would have showed them to us!" Ambrose protested.

"If Dad cared about it, he would have taken it with him when he went out for Chinese and abandoned his family!" Adrian replied. "I'm going to see what's inside!"

"Adrian don't!" Ambrose responded.

Adrian took the key and stuck it in the lock at which point Ambrose lunged forward and snatched it from his hand, and then stuck it in his mouth.

Adrian winced. "Ambrose! Please! The germs!"

Ambrose thought for a second and spit the key out at which point both brothers just stared at it on the floor.

"Okay, great time for a break!" Natalie said, taking both men by the arms and dragging them towards the door.

"Let's just leave that here and get back to it after we eat." She replied, pulling them out of the room as they glanced between the key and each other each step of the way.

* * *

A half hour into their dinner, Adrian excused himself saying he needed to go to the bathroom.

"You're not fooling me!" said Ambrose suspiciously. "You're going up to get that key!"

"Ammmmbroseee! My brother! I'm hurt! Are you saying I would actually _lie_ about needing a biological break?" Adrian responded.

Ambrose looked at him unphased. "You can hold your water until we'll done!" he said.

Adrian lowered his head as if ashamed, and said "Okay... I'm done!" He jumped up as quickly as he could and went running towards the stairs. Ambrose threw down his napkin and tried to follow, but Adrian was too quick for him and got to the study first, shutting and locking the door.

With Ambrose banging on the door to let him in, Adrian's eyes lit up when he saw the key, and he bent down and used a handkerchief to pick it up.

Walking over to the lock box, he pushed the key into the hole and gently turned it, releasing the latch. The lid creaked as he opened it, having picked up rust from years and years of storage. He blew dust off of the top layer of items within the box where he found some knick-knacks and souvenirs from years past. He ran into an obscene photo of a woman who was not his mother and quickly shoved it aside, and then he ran into a stack of bills and other papers at the bottom of the box.

"Why would he hide _this_ ?" he thought, as he leafed through the papers. "It's just a bunch of old papers and photographs."

Disappointed, he opened each document and looked at the contents therein.

"Marriage license for he and mom. Baptismal record. Inoculation record. Pay stub. Doctor bill for Ambrose having the mumps as a baby. Doctor bill for Mom having the flu. Doctor bill for dad…what?" He put the other papers down and blinked hard three or four times, then shook his head trying to convince himself that he was just reading things wrong.

* * *

Outside, Natalie came upstairs when she heard Ambrose complain that Adrian wasn't answering him.

"Adrian? Come on now! Let your brother inside!" she said, knocking on the door. "Enough is enough. Play like a good boy and let Ambrose in."

Twenty seconds passed and they heard the door unlock and the handle turn. Adrian opened the door and both Natalie and Ambrose were stunned at his appearance. White as a ghost, he looked at them both with a look of lost desperation.

"Oh my gosh, what is it? Honey? What's wrong?" Natalie said, putting her hand on his shoulder.

He looked at her in the face and great tears began to form in his eyes as he put his hand up to his forehead. She had seen this look only once before and it was frightening. It happened when he thought that his late wife Trudy might be alive and he was on the edge of a psychological break.

"Adrian? What's wrong?" Ambrose said with no response.

Adrian walked two or three paces more to the top of the stairs and turned and looked at them both, wadding up the piece of paper in his hand as he did. He then spun around, and with his arm over his face ran down the stairs and out the front door as fast as he could move, dropping the paper on the front porch as he left.

Natalie ran after him, but was unable to catch him and Ambrose and Heather stood on the porch watching until she came back.

"Something is very wrong!" Natalie said. "Get my keys! I have to go after him."

Ambrose, turned to go back into the house and then looked down on the ground, finding the crumpled up piece of paper. He bent down and picked it up, reading the contents therein. He stood stiffly and then his arms dropped to his side. He shook his head no, and then turned around, looking down the street in the direction that Adrian had run.

"What? What is it?" Natalie asked.

Ambrose said nothing, but handed the paper to Natalie.

She began to read. "It's a hospital bill for Jack Monk. Male sterilization. Dated September 18th 1958." She looked up at Ambrose with worry in her eyes. "That..that was…" she began.

"Thirteen months before Adrian was born." Ambrose said, completing her thought.

"Oh, no! Oh…Adrian!" Natalie said, in shock Then pulling herself together she said "Get my purse and keys! I have to go find him! Now!"


	2. Chapter 2

As night fell across a cool San Francisco evening, Adrian sat shivering with his knees against his chest under an overpass on Main Street near Highway 80. He had jumped in the back of a produce truck when nobody was watching and had taken a ride into town, not knowing where he was going or even knowing what he was thinking. His mind was a huge jumbled heap of fear and confusion, depression and anger, every negative thing that one could imagine. It was as if all his thoughts were like a jigsaw puzzle in a blender. He knew that somehow there was order somewhere, but in the chaotic torrent that was assaulting his brain, it was simply impossible to formulate a coherent thought or grab on to reason in any way at all. He was having a psychological break.

His body wanted to sleep, but sleep eluded him because every time he shut his eyes flashbacks, like great bolts of lightning, smashed into his psyche sending electrical currents throughout his system. In black and white, he visualized himself as a child standing off to the side while others played and laughed and enjoyed their lives. Alone, as an eight year old boy. Different. A reject from his peers and a reject from his parents. A misfit. He convulsed with bitter tears, but could not even tell why he was weeping and carried on so until finally, his frame gave way and he collapsed in utter exhaustion.

* * *

Natalie and Ambrose drove around for several hours, looking anywhere where they thought he might be. They started near the Monk home in Marin County, along the main route, along the water, in the parks. They saw nothing. Then, they went into San Francisco, to his old apartment, near the police station and along the Bay. Nothing.

Natalie continually called him on his cell phone, but it went straight through to voice mail. She texted him, with no response. Finally, with her spirit broken, she called Leland. She was beside herself with worry.

Stottlemeyer looked at the caller I.D. and answered the phone, having just sat down by T.K. to watch the evening news before retiring to bed.

"Hey, Nat. What's up?" he asked.

"Leeeeland…" Natalie cried, her voice almost unrecognizable.

"Natalie, are you okay?" he asked.

"Oh…Leland…" She sobbed.

"Natalie, what's the matter? What wrong?" he asked, alarmed.

T.K. sat up in listening intently to his side of the conversation and turned off the TV.

"It's Adrian. He's...gone." She said.

"Gone? What do you mean? Where did he go?" he asked.

"He…" she sucked back sobs, making it hard to continue, but wiped the tears from her eyes and finally got it out. "He got some really upsetting news today, Leland, and just took off running. I've only seen him with that look once before. The day we thought Trudy might still be alive. Do you remember?" she asked.

Leland thought back to the day where he watched his best friend staring with a lost and disturbed gaze, crumbling right before him, almost catatonic in posture, barely coherent. "I remember." he said gravely. "I thought we were long past all this. He was doing so well. What set him off?" he asked.

"He found a bill, something locked up in Jack Monk's papers. It seemed to indicate that Jack is not his father." She said.

"What?... Oh, for crying out loud!" Leland said. "How long has he been gone for?"

"Around six or seven hours." She answered.

"Not long enough to file a missing person's report. I'll tell you what, I'll call down to the station and have them send out the word to be on the lookout for him. If he's somewhere in the city, they should be able to find him. At least I hope so. Are you coming back here tonight?" Leland asked.

"No. I'm staying with Ambrose and Heather. We plan on getting back out at daybreak to search some more. Oh, Leland. I'm so frightened. He shouldn't be alone. It's cold, and dark, and … if you could have seen his face. His expression. Leland, I'm afraid this has set him back years. What…what if he never comes back?" she said, beginning to cry again.

"Natalie, we can't think that way. He's been through rough times before and has always pulled through. Just hold on and try to keep a steady head. We'll find him. I promise." Leland pledged before hanging up the phone and dialing friends in various San Francisco precincts.

* * *

Just before dawn, Adrian sat up. His eyes were swollen and red from crying throughout the night. Stubble had formed on his face, making him look unusually unkempt. His face was contorted with pain and his body ached with stiffness from sleeping on the cold concrete under the steel underpass. Where he was, he didn't know. He was even fuzzy on who he was. He knew he was married. His mind told him happily so, but in his confused state, happy was only a word. His 'feeler' was broken. His "thinker" was broken. He was broken.

He stood and stretched his back and neck, and then began walking, not noticing that he had left his cell phone behind. He managed to make it out onto the highway, and walked along the berm for several miles, staring blankly ahead as red tail lights whizzed past him in a blur, and the sun began to rise in the east, warming the air and illuminating the land.

About ten miles out of San Francisco, a trucker pulled over and took compassion.

"Hey buddy, you need a lift?" he asked, his kind weathered face and tender eyes showing no fear or constraint.

Adrian looked up at the man whose figure in the truck cab had an almost ethereal look to it balanced against the beams of golden sunlight coming in through the truck's windows. The man's presence brought a certain measure of peace – a key thing that Adrian's spirit lacked, and like a moth to a flame, Adrian knew that he was supposed to get on board. And, so he did.

As the trucker pulled away from the side of the road, he looked over at Adrian, concerned at his condition.

"You okay mister?" he asked.

Adrian's response was barely audible. "I don't know."

After about 1000 feet, the man turned and told him. "Well, I have some coffee over there in that thermos and picked up a couple of breakfast sandwiches at the last stop, so help yourself… Where you headed to?"

On this one, Adrian didn't even have to think. His lips simply formed the word, and he spoke it with a surety that surprised even himself, though in his numbed and confused state he had no idea of why he was going there.

"Midland. Midland, Texas." He replied.

"Great! I have to make a stop in Denver first, but I was heading to Fort Worth after that. You're on my way." The man stated. "What's your name?" he asked.

Adrian thought and then looked around. It came to him. "Adrian."

"Pleased to meet you, Adrian. My name is Michael, but people call me Bud. You can call me, Bud. You got a last name, Adrian?" he asked.

Adrian thought for a moment but the name wouldn't come so he just said "Smith."

Michael knew that wasn't right, but decided not to press. "Okay, Adrian Smith, on his way to Midland. Well…just set back and rest a spell. It's going to be a long haul, but good Lord willin' and the creek don't rise, I'll get us there. Yep, I'm a man on a mission, and I'll get you right where you're going, safe and sound."


	3. Chapter 3

Natalie was up and out of bed by five thirty and on the road by six continuing the search for her husband. She hadn't slept at all, worrying about his mental state, worrying about the cold, worrying that he could be out there where someone would take advantage of him. These fears only grew when she answered Leland's call at eight o'clock.

"Leland! Tell me you've found him." She said.

Leland closed his eyes and shook his head. "I wish I could. I take it he didn't call."

"No. Not a word. No call, no text. Where could he be?" she asked.

"I wish I knew. I wish I knew. But listen, I have gone ahead and put out the alert that Monk is missing and could be in danger with every police station in a three county radius. They're looking for him. And as soon as I hear something from them…" he said.

Just then, the deputy commissioner walked into the office. "Sir, we've found something."

"Just a second, Natalie." Leland said, cupping his hand over the mouthpiece. "What is it?"

"The Southern District just called in. They arrested some guy out near Rincon Hill for causing a disturbance. Seems that some guy in a brown sedan almost hit him while he was crossing the street and the guy chased down the other guy's car and threw a brick through its window." He said.

"Sounds like a normal morning in San Francisco. Why is this significant enough to come into my office and interrupt a very important conversation?" Stottlemeyer asked.

"Sir, the assailant was carrying Adrian Monk's telephone." He replied.

Leland looked disturbed as he considered the possibilities, then pondered what he would tell Natalie.

"Hey Natalie, I have to go. There's something I need to go check out." He said.

"Is it about Adrian?" she asked with urgency.

"Um…I'm not sure. I need to go on a run and I'll call you when I get back." He replied.

"Leland. Don't hang up! If you know something about Adrian that you aren't telling…" she said.

"I don't. I will talk to you soon, Natalie. Try not to worry. I've got the best people looking for him. We'll find him." He said before hanging up the receiver.

He sat for a moment looking blankly into space, and then looked up at his Deputy. "Tell the guys down at Southern to hold this prisoner for me. I want to go down and interrogate him personally." He said, as he stood up and grabbed his keys, walking out the door.

* * *

Monk didn't say a word for the first 45 minutes of the ride. He was too busy trying to grab hold of the barrage of random thoughts and organize them in a fashion that made sense. He looked around the cab of the truck. He had been in a truck like this before. He was in the passenger's seat just like he was now. He recalled the CB radio and all of the controls on the dash. But, he couldn't place where or when this had happened.

He looked down at his wedding band and tried to remember. He _was_ married. That was clear. But where was his wife? He closed his eyes and tried to recollect what she looked like, what her name was, anything at all. He managed to still his thought long enough that in his minds eye he could see a hazy image of Natalie in full color. She was beckoning him home. He felt a surge of happiness and opened his eyes, but the moment he did, the image vanished and he suddenly felt lonely and empty without her.

"You don't mind if I listen to some music, do you?" Bud asked, breaking the silence.

Adrian shook his head no and looked out the side window at the passing scenery.

"Our next stop is Reno. We should be there in about two and a half hours. I find music always helps pass the time." Michael said, leaning forward and turning on the radio to a classic Country and Western station. Within a quarter of a mile, a new song came on and Michael began singing along. He had a nice voice…at least until Monk listened to the lyrics.

As they travelled, Michael sang with Johnny Cash.

_I hear the train a comin', It's rollin' 'round the bend_

_And I ain't seen the sunshine since…I don't know when_

_I'm stuck in Folsom Prison, and time keeps draggin' on_

_But that train keeps a-rollin', on down to San Antone_

Adrian turned towards the radio with furrowed brown then shifted his eyes between it and Michael singing.

_When I was just a baby,my Mama told me, "son_

_Always be a good boy…don't ever play with guns"_

_But I shot a man in Reno, just to watch him die_

_When I hear that whistle blowin'… I hang my head and cry._

Adrian's eyes grew wide the moment he heard the word Reno. Who exactly had he jumped in the truck with.? He looked past the singing trucker and up at the sun visor above the driver's head. His operator's license was clearly visible and read _Michael Matus, Los Angeles, California._

"You're from Los Angeles?" Adrian asked quietly, stopping Michael's impromptu serenade.

"Yes. Lived there all of my life. How about you? You from San Fran?" Michael asked.

Adrian thought. "Yeah…I…I think." He got a look of concern on his face. "Wh…what did you do before becoming a trucker?"

"Oh, odds and ends. But mainly, I've worked in security." Bud answered.

Monk's eyes grew even wider with anxiety as he imagined that now he was sitting next to a serial killer escaped from a high security prison or something. He scooted towards the door. "I see." He said, as the door flew open and he nearly flew out onto the highway.

How Michael reacted so quickly, Monk had no idea. But he managed to both pull Monk back to safety and shut the door all within less than five seconds.

"Careful there, friend! You're not a cat. Humans don't bounce too well and they most _certainly_ don't have nine lives!" he said, followed by "Buckle that belt. We don't want to lose you. Make me fail at my mission."

_Mission? What on earth was he talking about? _Monk made himself small and sat very still, unsure of pretty much everything at that point.

* * *

After another hour and a half passed by, _Blue Eyes Crying in the Rain_ came over the air, stirring up a level of recognition for Adrian. He stopped, put his hand to his forehead and began humming along.

"Ah. You like Willie Nelson?" asked Michael.

Adrian smiled. "Yeah. I like Willie Nelson." He said, with a tone of victory that he had remembered. "He was my wife's favorite."

"Was? Has your wife passed?" Matus asked.

Adrian thought and then closed his eyes. This time he saw Trudy, in black and white, with her white flowing dress, just like she used to appear to him.

He opened his eyes. "Yes. She…she was my first wife. She died young. I…I think I mourned her for a very long time."

"I'm sorry for your loss. What about your wife now? What's she like?" Bud asked.

Adrian shut his eyes and the vision of Natalie came back clearer. "She's beautiful. She's…she's my soulmate." He said with a smile. He felt warm inside again. Happy. This time the feeling didn't leave when he opened his eyes.

"What's her name?" Bud asked.

Adrian stopped and looked at him. "I…I don't remember….Why don't I remember?"

Michael put his hand out and patted Adrian on the shoulder. "It's okay, my friend. You will in time. You will in time."

* * *

Leland walked into the station house in the Southern District with all the dominance of a general inspecting his troops. As a police Captain, he always felt that he was part of the rank and file, but in his current role he actually enjoyed the respect and authority that the role afforded him. People from junior level officers to the Lieutenant stood at attention as he walked in and asked to see the hoodlum who had taken Monk's phone.

He was led into the interrogation room where an older teen aged man with tattoos running up his arms and neck sat waiting for a lecture.

Leland walked into the room and sat down in front of the young man and asked to be left alone.

The young man looked up at Leland and shook his head. "Alright…alright, I'll just save you the time. I _know_ I shouldn't have lost my temper. I_ know_ I shouldn't have vandalized the guy's car. I'll go ahead and confess to whatever you want if we can just get this over with." He said.

"I'm not here to talk to you about the car." Said Leland.

"What? You're not?" he asked.

"No. I'm here to talk to you about the cell phone and the person you took it from." Leland replied.

The young man looked surprised. "Man, I didn't take that from anyone. I found it."

"Don't lie to me." Leland replied, his voice tensing.

"I'm not. Really, I'm not. I swear. I _did _see the guy it belonged to though." He said.

"Really? What did he look like?" Leland asked, just to confirm.

"I don't know, somewhere between 5'9" to 5'11, somewhere around there. Dark curly hair. Looked like he was out of it." the man said.

"Where was he?" Leland asked.

"He had been sleeping under the bridge. He got up and started walking down the street towards the highway. Looked like he was half out of his head. I didn't want to mess with him. So…I just let him walk on. After he was out of the way, I went up to where he was sleeping and that is where I found the phone."

"So, you said he was headed towards the highway." Leland asked.

"Yeah, towards Oakland." The man said.

Leland walked quickly over to the door and opened it, nodding at the guard outside.

"I'm done here." He said. "You can take him back"

"Sure thing Commissioner." Said the guard.

"Commissioner?" asked the prisoner. "This guy must be important for the Police Commissioner to come all the way down here to interview little ol' me." The man said.

Leland looked at him. "He is. You have no idea."


	4. Chapter 4

At around noon, Bud took the Reno exit and pulled the rig into the parking lot of a restaurant called Roxie's. Adrian had eaten one of the breakfast sandwiches that Michael had, but given that he had skipped dinner the night before, he was ready to eat again. He told Bud that without his wallet, that he didn't have any cash, but Bud told him that was no problem at all. He had him covered.

Following Bud's lead, he walked into the diner and took a seat at one of the booths next to the Window. The place was busy at the noon hour, but their waitress was super friendly and seemed to give them special attention.

"Welcome to Roxie's! Is this your first time with us?" she asked.

"No. I've been here before, but I think it's the first time for my friend." Michael said.

Adrian nodded.

"Cool. Well, we have several specials today. We have an open faced Roast Beef with gravy, mashed potatoes and a salad for $7.99. Fried Chicken with Okra and Green Beans for $8.99 and our fish of the day is a Crispy Cod with French fries and cole slaw. We also have veggie burgers if you are vegetarian. Would you like to take a few minutes." She asked.

Michael looked at Adrian, who was glancing over the menu. "Maybe just a few." He said.

"Okay, I'll give you time." She replied.

"No. I'm ready." Said Adrian. "I would like the roast beef, hold the bread. And, I'd like to substitute carrots for the salad….And could you put the roast beef, mashed potatoes, and carrots on separate plates? …. Oh, and could you put the gravy in a separate place as well?"

The woman looked at Adrian funny but kept a smile plastered on her face. "We can do that." She turned to Michael, "and for you sir?"

"I'll have the fish dinner." He said.

"The cod?" she asked.

"Yes. And an iced tea to drink." He replied.

"For me also." Adrian responded.

While the waitress submitted their requests, Michael looked at Adrian and decided to try to draw him out a little more.

"So, Adrian. What is it that you do in life?" he asked.

Adrian thought. "I think…I think I'm unemployed."

"Really? I would have thought you had a pretty good job, judging from the watch you're wearing." Michael said.

Adrian looked at his wrist and had a quick flashback of Natalie giving him the watch the prior Christmas.

"It was a gift." Adrian said.

"From your wife?" asked Michael.

"Yes." Adrian replied, wanting desperately to remember more.

"She has good taste." Michael replied.

"Are you married?" asked Adrian.

"Me? No..no…no… Don't believe in it. At least not for me. Nope. Confirmed old bachelor as they say." Michael replied.

As they talked a couple of men in black pants and jackets walked up and sat in the booth beside them. One was tall with black hair and amber eyes. The other was short and stocky with brown hair and a ruddy complexion. Adrian took note of their appearance and heard tidbits of their conversation.

"No, Leroy. The boss said to keep going. No sense backing out now." Said the man with amber eyes.

"I know what he said, but does he realize how dangerous this is becoming?" Leroy replied. "Listen Paulie, I know it is a lot of money, but…we've got to think of our own futures too."

"Leroy, I gotta live with this stuff. Best to just play along and get it over with. Trust me." Paulie replied.

* * *

Natalie walked into the Commissioner's office around 12:45 PM after Leland gave her a call. Anxious to hear any news, she feared that Leland was going to give her the worst, and her stomach churned with anticipation. She walked up to his office door where he was just finishing up signing off on some papers authorizing further action on the case.

"Natalie, my dear. Come on in and shut the door." He said.

"Oh Leland. Please tell me he's not…." She said, with tears beginning to form.

"He's not." Leland replied, as she breathed a sigh of relief, shut the door and slowly sat down at the chair across from his desk.

Leland stopped and studied her face for a moment. It was etched with worry and she had dark circles under her eyes from not sleeping. He opened his desk drawer and pulled out a zip lock bag containing Adrian's phone. Taking the phone out of the bag, he placed it on the desk directly in front of her.

She looked down and picked it up. "Adrian's phone." She said quietly.

"Yes. A young man found it this morning under an overpass by highway 80." Leland replied.

She looked up with concern in her eyes.

"He said that he saw Adrian walking away from it and that he looked a bit out of sorts. He said Adrian was walking towards the highway." Stottlemeyer continued.

"The highway?" she asked and then listened as Leland explained.

"Yes. Going towards Oakland. We think that he may have hitched a ride out of town, but we're still checking." He said, then after a pause he spoke to her directly. "Listen, I don't want you worrying yourself sick over this. You need to get some rest and we need you to be strong. We WILL find him. Because I'm concerned about his mental condition, I've just signed an order to issue an alert for the Western States for a missing person." He said.

"An alert? Adrian wouldn't want a lot of publicity over this." She said.

"It's the only way right now that I know to find him. If he has left the state, and I believe he has, we will need to have that capability working in our favor. He might get a little embarrassed over it, but he clearly is in trouble and I'm willing to risk his embarrassment." Leland replied.

Natalie nodded. "How long before people generally respond to these things?"

"They have been pretty successful. I would expect if the alert goes out this afternoon, we may know something as early as 48 hours." He replied.

"48 hours? That long?" she asked.

"Right now he's a needle in a haystack. It will take a little while for people to disseminate the information." Leland replied.

"I understand." She said softly.

"As soon as I know something, I will let you know. In the meantime, I want you to remember what I said. Go home, get some rest. You need your strength. He needs your strength. And remember, we WILL find him." Leland said assuredly.

"Thank you, Leland. You're a wonderful friend. I don't know what we would do without you." She replied.

* * *

Michael and Adrian finished their food and then Michael paid the bill. As he did, Adrian stopped and stared at a young family that were just then coming into the diner. The woman had blonde hair and the man had dark hair. She smiled at him as he opened the door for her, and then she wheeled a stroller in behind them with two young toddlers in it. Adrian closed his eyes and pictured Natalie playing with Lee and Addy.

Having just paid the bill, Michael walked up to Adrian and quietly observed what he was doing. He looked at the couple and then at Adrian and asked. "You have kids?"

Adrian looked up at Michael. "Yes. I have two children. Infants. About five or six months old."

"Do you remember their names?" he asked.

Adrian shut his eyes tightly, trying to block out all outside stimuli, but their names wouldn't come. He looked up sadly. "No. I don't. But I miss them. And I miss my wife. Michael, what has happened to me?"

Michael looked at him and patted him on the back. "I couldn't say. But it'll all come back. Don't worry about it. You're going to be fine. Now, let's get back on the road. But first, I need to stop over there at Sumner Oil and top off the tank." Michael said.

"Oh…we're low on gas?" Adrian asked.

"No. Not really. I just like to top off the tank every time I stop, particularly when there is a Sumner Station. Keeps the rig purrin' like a kitten." Michael explained as the two men left the restaurant and headed back out towards the rig.


	5. Chapter 5

Michael pulled his rig up to the gas pump at Sumner Gas, stuck his credit card in the machine and set it to fill. Adrian crawled over into the driver's seat and watched the gage as it pumped, not quite sure why he was doing so, but with a sense of excitement, nevertheless. As the numbers rolled, however, he became distracted when two men with face masks pulled their car up to the station, got out of the car, looked around, and walked into the building. Like a little kid, he wanted to keep watching what Michael was doing, but his curiosity got the better of him and he went to the passenger's side, opened the door and climbed out of the rig.

"I'll be back" he told Michael, who nodded his head but watched Adrian with interest.

In a clandestine manner, Adrian walked over to the door of the building and peaked through the windows. His gut instinct proved to be right, because on the other side he saw one man pointing a gun at the clerk who was emptying out the cash drawer into the other's waiting hands. It wasn't long before the two robbers spun around and ran for the door. Adrian had nowhere to go, so he pretended as if he were just walking up, only to be knocked down onto the ground by the first man. The second man looked at him and made eye contact. Adrian recognized Paulie by his amber eyes, and looked away. Paulie did not linger but jumped into the get-away car as Michael came running over and helped Adrian up from the ground.

"You okay, Adrian?" asked Michael.

Adrian looked off in the distance to try to mark which direction the car was going, having already memorized its plates.

"I'm fine. We need to call the police. Those guys just robbed this store." He replied.

* * *

It took about five minutes for the Reno PD to arrive and they took a statement from the clerk who was shaken to his core.

"Sir, will you tell us what happened?" asked the first officer to respond to the scene.

"Yes," the clerk said with a thick accent, "I was ringing this lady out and as soon as she left, these two guys come up and stick a gun in my face and ask me for all my money. This is the fourth time a Sumner store has gotten hit in the past two weeks. The first one, a guy got killed." He said.

"Wait? Someone was murdered?" asked Adrian.

"Yes. If this is the same dudes, you would think they would want to hide. They are bold. Which is why I gave them everything they wanted. Wasn't about to fight them. No way. I want to live." He said.

"Do you have a description of the guys?" asked the police officer.

"No. They wore masks." He replied.

"Officer, I think I saw who did it in the restaurant about a half hour ago." Adrian volunteered.

"What makes you think it was the same people?" The officer asked.

"I saw the eyes of one of them. Very unusual shade, almost a yellow brown, I saw them in the restaurant and then through the holes of the mask as they ran out. I'm sure it was the same guy." He replied.

"Did you witness anything else?" he asked.

"Yes, they pulled out of here in a grey sedan. Nevada license plate 375AJZ. It had a left tail light that was out, and they went left out of this drive and then on up that hill, turning right." Adrian replied.

"Toward the highway." The officer said.

"That would be my guess. Also, the taller guy, the one with the amber eyes, his name is Paulie. The stockier one was Leroy. I heard them say their names as they were eating." Adrian volunteered.

"That's great information, Mr….." said the officer.

Adrian hesitated, and Michael stepped up. "This is my friend Adrian Smith officer. He doesn't currently have an address, so if you have any further questions, you can call 213-555-4398."

The officer jotted down the information and thanked the men for their time and Michael and Adrian walked back to the rig.

* * *

Getting settled back in the seats, Adrian looked over at Michael inquisitively.

"Michael." He said.

"Bud. Please, call me Bud." Michael corrected.

"Okay, Bud. You don't know me from Adam. We just met. How do you know I'm not some bad guy? And why are you helping me like you're doing?" he asked.

Michael smiled at him and started the rig. Shifting it into drive he said, "Adrian, even though we just met, I probably know and understand you better than you think I do. And…I told you. I'm on a mission. You hopped in my rig wanting to go to Midland, and that's where we're heading. Don't worry so much. I've got you covered."

* * *

By 6:00 PM, the fact that Adrian was missing was beginning to make the news. It wasn't the number one story or even in the top five, but nestled among the happenings of the day was the fact that former FBI Deputy Director Adrian Monk had not been heard from in over twenty four hours and was possibly in danger. Anyone who had seen him was encouraged to call the San Francisco Police or their local law enforcement at their earliest convenience.

Natalie kept her cell phone at her side throughout the evening, just in case Adrian might call. She decided to spend the night with her parents, mainly because Ambrose was becoming morose as they waited to hear any news, and Leland was so busy. She wanted to stay positive for Adrian's sake, believing that when she saw him again that it was likely to be a difficult time for both to get through but also believing that get through it, they would.

She fell asleep that evening rocking Lee in her arms and gently stroking his dark curly locks that he inherited from his father. The shock of everything had left her feeling drained, but she also had a certain peace in that moment that she couldn't explain that he was somehow being taken care of.

* * *

When the two men reached Salt Lake City, Michael pulled the rig into a motel for the evening. Seeing how persnickety that Adrian was about things, he even sprung for two rooms, thinking Adrian would be more comfortable that way. Of course, the motel was only $29.99 a night, so it wasn't a huge outlay But, neither was it something that Adrian felt comfortable in.

The two men parted ways for the evening at about 11:00 PM and Michael didn't even stop long enough to brush his teeth before he went to bed and drifted off to sleep. But, by 12:00 AM he was awakened by the sound of machinery coming next door from Monk's hotel room. At first he tried to ignore it and go back asleep, but it continued and continued and continued. _Brmmmmmmm...brmmmmmmmm..._

Finally, he called down to the front desk to ask if they would give him the telephone number to Monk's room. Since he had paid the bill, they complied with the request, but Adrian did not answer the phone. So, Michael peeled his body from the bed and walked over to the room next door.

He banged on the door for about 45 seconds when finally he heard the machinery stop. Monk opened the door.

"Hi, Mike…uh, Bud. Is something wrong?" he asked.

Michael replied. "What are you doing in there?"

Monk opened the door a bit and Michael saw that the room was completely disassembled. The bedding had been pulled off of the bed and Adrian had been in the room vacuuming every corner and crevice. Fresh bedding sat on the dresser, next to a bottle of Windex which was no doubt his next project that he had planned.

"You're sweeping?" Michael asked with amazement.

"Yeah. Was just a bit dirty in here." Adrian replied.

"You know they have employees that do that?" Michael responded.

"Yeah…well…" Adrian said. "I just felt like it needed it. I didn't wake you did I?"

Michael gave Adrian a look. "Hand it here." He said.

"What? What do you want with it?" Adrian asked, prepared to defend the vacuum.

"I just want to see it." Said Michael.

Adrian looked dubious but handed the vacuum over to his friend.

Michael held it up, tilted it and looked it over. "Nice vacuum. I think it's tired and wants to go home!" he said, walking towards the front desk with the cleaner.

"Michael, wait!" Adrian said.

"No, Adrian. It's late. Enough cleaning! Go to bed!" Michael replied, leaving a disappointed Adrian standing just outside the door of his room.

* * *

By 7:00 AM, the two men were back on the road and Adrian was in better spirits, though still very confused about nearly everything. As they pulled out onto the road, Adrian took in the scenery as did Michael, at times seemingly losing control of his rig.

"Watch the road! Watch the road!" Adrian admonished.

"Adrian, my friend! Relax! I've got it under control!" Michael replied.

Adrian glared. "Oh yeah? Well, you almost hit two Mormon Missionaries about a mile back."

"I did not." Michael protested.

"You did too! The one jumped off his bike and pulled the other out of the way." Adrian replied.

Michael scrunched up his face and said. "Oh. I thought they were fighting."

"Fighting Mormon Missionaries? Come on! When's the last time you saw that?" Adrian asked.

Michael laughed as he imagined the spectacle. "Alright…I'll keep my eyes on the road."

* * *

About ten minutes later, Adrian broke the silence again.

"I dreamed about her last night." He told Michael as they rode down the highway towards their next stop in Rawlins, Wyoming.

"Who, your wife?" Michael asked.

"Yes. I saw her. I saw her in various settings. Times we spent together. I can remember her smile, her beautiful eyes. The way she scrunches up her nose when she gets tickled. The furrow in her brow when she is upset. I feel…I feel connected to her right now. Peaceful. And, yet...I don't even know her name.

Bud, I lied to you before when I said my name was Smith. I don't even know my name. What is wrong with me? Who am I?" he asked, pleadingly.

Michael felt sympathy for his friend,

"Maybe this journey you're on is so you can find that out. It's not that often that men get a chance to consider who they really are. Busyness, life pressures, all sorts of things crowd in on men and they seldom take stock in themselves." Michael said.

"I don't like myself." Adrian said, bluntly.

"Now why would you say a thing like that?" Michael asked. "You seem like a good person. Intelligent. Loving. I'll tell you what, back at Reno, the way you rattled things off to that cop, I was amazed. Your observation skills, amazing. Why would you not like yourself?"

Adrian thought. He closed his eyes. He was transported in black and white to his tenth birthday party. He remembered Cowboy Hank performing. And he remembered all of the kids leaving when Hank left, leaving Monk alone and abandoned.

"Because nobody else does." Adrian said.

"_Nobody_ else likes you?" Michael prodded.

Adrian closed his eyes again and this time he was at his 50th birthday party which Natalie threw him. He remembered the trouble that she went through surprising him with it and all of the friends who showed up and the genuinely good time they had together. Cowboy Hank was even there, and they didn't leave. Of course, she would have broken their necks if they had. He smiled. Maybe he wasn't unlikable after all.

"Maybe not nobody." Adrian said with a smile.

"There. That's what I like to see. You _can _smile! Adrian, my friend! It's going to be just fine! EVERYTHING is going to turn out a-okay!" Michael said as he turned the radio back on and began singing along once again.

* * *

"Adrian Monk…M.O.N.K." Leland Stottlemeyer said to the officer at the Reno PD, as he sat in his office with Natalie sitting in a chair across from him eagerly listening to his end of the conversation.

"Yes." He continued. "About 5 foot 10, Dark curly hair, slender build. Late 50s. Yeah…yeah… that's him!" he said excitedly. "He was?... How long ago?...Oh. What?... He did?... That sounds like him."

Leland put his hand over the mouthpiece and updated Natalie.

"They said he was in Reno yesterday around noon, with a trucker. Said that the service station they had stopped at had gotten robbed and Monk helped give a very detailed description of the robbers to the officers." Said Leland.

"Did they say where he went from there?" asked Natalie.

"You said you took a police report…did they say where you could find them if you had questions? They were headed towards Salt Lake...What?... Oh, he did?" Leland said, then leaned towards Natalie. "Says the trucker left a number."

"What is the number?" Leland asked writing it down. "Got it…What?... Oh, you already called it?... It's a what? …. A prayer hotline?!" Leland tossed his free arm up in the air. "Yeah…I suppose now would be as good of a time as any for that, but I'd also really have liked it if this mysterious trucker would have given us _an actual_ number where we could speak with Monk... Okay. Yeah. I'd appreciate it if you kept looking. Do you know what road they took? Great. Straight out Highway 80. Yes. Thank you. Please do."

Leland hung up and looked at Natalie.

"Well, Mrs. Monk. It seems that your husband is travelling with a truck driver heading East on Highway 80 headed towards Salt Lake City. He is using the name of Adrian Smith." Said Leland.

"_Smith?_ Leland, do you…do you think he knows?" Natalie asked.

"Who he is? Who knows? But, he was with it enough to give the cops a very detailed description of these guys who robbed a service station. And, the officer said he seemed a bit distracted at times but otherwise was well."

"Oh, thank God!" Natalie said. "What's our next move?"

"I was thinking perhaps we could have your parents watch Lee and Abby and take off in my SUV along I-80 to talk to people and see if they have seen them."

Just then, a familiar voice came from out in the foyer.

"You're not considering a road trip without inviting me, are you?" the man said.

Leland and Natalie spun around.

"Randy Disher!" Leland said with a smile. "What a surprise!" He walked over to him and shook his hand, patting him on the arm as he did.

Randy walked in and hugged Natalie. "I flew out as soon as I got the bulletin about Monk. Wanted to help. Have we heard anything new?"

"Yeah. He's out there with some mystery trucker going along I-80 under the name Adrian Smith." Said Natalie.

"Adrian Smith? Well, that's about as dumb as Leland Rodriguez." Randy replied. "What kicked all of this off?"

"Are you serious about helping?" said Leland.

"Absolutely!" Randy replied.

"What about Sharona?" asked Natalie.

"She's back at home with Ophie. Wanted to come but had to work." Randy explained. "She asked to be kept informed."

"Got it. Well, we sure are glad to see you my friend! We need to go now though. We'll catch you up once we start driving." Leland said, leading Natalie and Randy out of his office and to his SUV.


	6. Chapter 6

"Adrian, I thought you just went." Michael said as they stood in line at the only public restroom in the Rock Springs, Wyoming, Sumner Gas station.

"I know, I know…but I told you that I didn't want that breakfast burrito." Adrian replied.

"What's the big deal? It was just a flour shell with some sausage, egg, and cheese. It didn't make me sick." Michael rebutted.

"Yeah, but you have a trucker's stomach. You're used to having a less refined palate." Adrian replied, holding one hand over his stomach and one near his mouth. "Ohhh…for goodness sakes, I need to get in there. Can you tell them it's an emergency? I'm about to v-v-vomit." Adrian replied. "I wont forgive you for this, you know."

"You may have to use a cup." Michael said, pointing to the over-sized fountain drink cups on the side of the room.

Monk glared at him.

Michael rolled his eyes and knocked on the door.

"Are you about done in there? My friend here doesn't feel well." He replied.

A man opened the door with an anxious expression on his face. "I'm sorry, he'll have to go someplace else. My wife's water just broke. We're having a baby right now." He replied.

Michael looked in the restroom and there was a woman in the room doubled over in pain and laying on the dirty floor.

"Adrian, did you hear that? We're going to have to go someplace else." Michael said.

Adrian looked bothered. "I heard. Could you just ask her to hold off a few minutes? I won't be long."

Michael furrowed his brow. "I will NOT ask her that. Stay here. I'm going to go call the emergency department and get some snacks for the road. I doubt these kids even have an ambulance on the way." He said, walking to the front desk.

Adrian looked in the room and saw the woman laying on the floor and wanted to help. He quickly grabbed some paper towels and Lysol. Keeping his eyes towards the ceiling, he handed the supplies to the man.

"You may want to clean up a bit. That floor is very unsanitary." Monk said, before walking away quickly towards the back of the store.

* * *

As Michael talked to emergency personnel, Monk walked along the refrigeration section before running into a door marked "EMPLOYEES ONLY." Looking back towards the counter, he opened the door and walked into the back room where there was another restroom. Slipping inside, it was less than a minute before he had purged his stomach of its noxious contents. Horrified and yet relieved, he walked over to the sink to clean up. He turned on the water and ran cold water over his face and thickening stubble. Then, he reached up for anti-bacterial but found the dispenser was empty as was the paper towel dispenser.

"Oh, for crying out loud." He said, looking around the room for refill supplies.

Shaking the water off of his hands, he used his sleeve to open the bathroom door and walked over to a closet that had cleaning supplies in it. Using his sleeve again, he turned on the light and began looking around.

The room was a mess, and he instinctively began organizing it. He began stacking smaller boxes on top of larger, regardless if they had the same content. On the second row, he ran into a box filled with bags of a white substance.

"Is that what I think it is?" He said to himself.

Looking around the room, he found a box of latex gloves and put on a pair. He walked back over to the box and pulled out one of the bags and opened it. Taking some of the material between his fingers he recognized that it looked like sea salt, but very likely was Methamphetamine. He put the package back in the box, and placed it back on the shelf. Leaving the closet, he wrapped the gloves in some paper towels and threw them away. Next, he left the back room altogether, unspotted by the clerk or Michael.

Walking into the toiletry section, he found a box of wipes, opened them and took one out. Then he walked up to Michael, like a rogue child in a grocery store and asked him to purchase them for him.

Michael smirked. "I guess I need to buy this package of wipes too." The clerk took the item and rang it up.

"Where did you go?" Bud asked Monk.

"I'll tell you later." Monk replied, at which point there was the sound of the woman screaming in labor from the restroom. The clerk rang Michael out then ran to see if he could help the couple.

Adrian grabbed Michael's sleeve and said "We need to get out of here and call the cops."

"What? What did you find?" Michael asked.

"I was in the back room." He answered.

"Doing what?" Michael asked, provoking another glare from Monk. "I withdraw the question."

"Drugs." Monk replied.

"You're doing drugs? That explains a lot." Said Michael.

"Nooooo! I'm not doing drugs. They are running drugs out of this place." Adrian replied.

"Are you sure?" he asked.

"Well I could be wrong, but of course, I'm not. They have a whole box of white powdered stuff back in the back room and…" Adrian answered, but stopped short when he saw the photographs of the various employees on the wall. Walking up to the display, he saw the Regional Manager who was a man named Frank Lasalle. Frank was an older man with grey hair, a dominant chin, and ...crystal clear amber eyes.

"You didn't finish your sentence. And what?" Michael asked.

"And…we need to leave. This thing is bigger than what is in that back room." Adrian replied.

* * *

Leland, Natalie and Randy decided that because Monk was a full 24 hours ahead of them, and appeared to be making stops along the way, their best tactic would be to drive straight through, taking turns as they drove and eating in the car. Natalie drove them to Reno where they merely picked up the police report and had a short conversation with the clerk before hitting the road once again. It was Leland's job to get them to Salt Lake City.

For their listening enjoyment, Randy sat in the back seat and played his guitar, making up songs as they went.

_Adriannnnnnn. Such a model citizen…_

_Alas we hardly knew you…._

_Adriannnnn. Such a gentle-man…._

_Oh, how we want to see you…._

_To see…you…. Again…._

_To see you…our friend…._

_When you left…on that August day_

_We didn't know …you would go away…._

_Oh please….Adriannnnn_

_Come….home again….._

After twelve minutes and fifteen verses of the song, Leland looked over at Natalie and told her to cover her ears. Next, he turned on the car sound system as loud as it would go, causing Randy to drop his guitar and cover his years. After making his point, Leland looked back in the back seat.

"I think maybe we can do without music for now. Okay, Randy?" Leland asked.

Randy gave him a dirty look and said "Fine." Followed by a "That was so rude!" under his breath.

"What was that, Disher?" Leland asked with authority.

"Nothing." Randy responded.

* * *

After another two minutes of silence, Randy looked out the window and smiled. "Hey guys, remember when we went on a road trip the last time?"

"Platte County, Wyoming. Teddy Mulligan." Leland answered.

"Yeah. Teddy hit Monk in the head and gave him amnesia. You don't suppose that is what happened this time?" Randy asked.

"What are you thinking?" Asked Natalie.

"Maybe that trucker that Monk is with hit him in the head and is holding him captive. Maybe he doesn't know who he is, and instead of solving the crime – he's really the one who held up the service station and just told the police it was some guy named Paulie to throw them off the trail." Disher suggested.

"What?" Natalie asked.

"It happened to him once before. The amnesia part I mean." He replied.

"That was different." Natalie responded.

Undisuaded, he continued. "Remember Patty Hearst?" he asked.

Leland raised one eyebrow. "Uh, yeah. Granddaughter of media magnate William Randolph Hearst." Leland responded.

"Yeah. She got kidnapped by the Symbionese Liberation Army and indoctrinated in their ways. Next thing we know, she's out robbing banks. With Monk's recent experience with radical groups..." Randy said.

Leland looked at Randy. "That's your idea?"

"It's possible." Randy asked. "Right?"

Leland and Natalie stared straight ahead.

"I know it would be unlikely. But, it's still within the realm of possibility, if it could happen with Patty Hearst…it could… Maybe he's out there and on top of amnesia, he has Stockholm syndrome." he rambled.

"Randy! Monk does not have Stockholm syndrome! He's only been gone a little over 24 hours!" Leland growled.

"And, Adrian is not on a crime spree!" Natalie scolded.

"Okay. I didn't say it." Randy replied.

There was a few more moments of quiet and Natalie spoke up.

"I'm afraid he _is_ in trouble." She said quietly.

"All because his dad might not be his dad?" Randy asked. "It's not like the guy was a part of his life."

"You don't have to be in a person's life to affect their life." Natalie responded. "Jack may have been absent, but he had a profound effect on Adrian and Ambrose and how they both thought of themselves as kids. It has carried through to adulthood. Now, to think that he might not even be Adrian's dad…Adrian's having to deal with the thought that everything he ever knew about that aspect of his life might be a lie. To say the least, it's a challenge."

"And we know how Monk does with mental challenges." Leland added.

Randy thought. "Oh wow. We really do need to find him… " Then, he added. "But say he really is like Patty Hearst…"

"Randy! Enough!" Leland barked as they passed their first sign indicating they were half-way to Utah.

* * *

Out in the truck, Monk filled Michael in on what he had seen, both in terms of the drugs and the photo on the wall.

"Those eyes. That amber color. It's very rare. I've probably seen it on maybe five or six people in my entire life, and I know that three of those instances it was all in the same family." Adrian said.

"So, you think the Lasalle character is related to Paulie?" asked Michael.

"Very possibly. The two look like they could be father and son, or at least siblings." Adrian replied.

"What should we do about it?" Michael asked.

"I think we need to call the Capt…" he stopped. "The Captain. I…I have a friend in San Francisco. Was Captain of the Police Force."

"Was?" Michael asked.

"Yeah. I don't think he is today." Adrian replied. "But, I think he's been one of my best friends for a very long time. La-Larry? Leonard?. No that's not it."

Michael patted him on the shoulder. "Don't worry. It'll come to you. I think we should call the cops though about what you found in there."

Adrian shook his head in agreement, but his mind had drifted back to the important people whose names he could not remember. As it did, he began to draw into himself again.

* * *

Along their route, Leland got a phone call from police headquarters in San Francisco saying that they had gotten a tip that two men had stayed at a motel in Salt Lake City the night before, one of whom matched the description of Monk.

"Well Monk's description applies to a lot of people." Leland said to his contact. "How do we know it's him?"

"They said that they came in late in an 18 wheeler and that when they left the next morning, that the one who looks like Monk's room had been cleaned from stem to stern." The officer replied.

Leland shook his head. "That's Monk. We have an address?"

* * *

A few hours passed and the trio reached the motel in Salt Lake City. As they waited in the lobby to speak with the front desk attendant, the TV program played local news.

_Police in Rock Springs, Wyoming announced a major drug bust at a Sumner Gas station. _

Hearing the words Sumner gas caught both Natalie and Leland's attention.

_It seems that they got a tip from a customer who had stopped in to use the facilities and found the drugs among other supplies in the janitor's closet. The bust is expected to be worth several hundred thousand dollars. In other news…_

Leland and Natalie looked at one another.

"Sounds like Monk _is_ in Wyoming, or has recently been there." Leland said.

"Wonder what is in Wyoming?" She asked.

Randy looked somewhat disturbed. "Maybe he went to visit Cora."

"What?!" she said, laughing.

"Well, they _were_ married you know!" Randy replied.

Natalie shook her head, and Leland chuckled. "Pretend married! She only told him that when he had amnesia. She was delusional."

"I think Cora is the last person that he would visit. But, I think it is a fair question to ask what they would be doing in Wyoming." Said Leland.

"Think like a trucker." Randy said.

"What do you mean?" asked Leland.

"They are probably just on his route. Maybe we could talk to some other truckers and find out what is the most likely stop for someone on this route." Randy suggested.

Leland looked at him. "Good idea."

Randy looked surprised. "Really?"

Leland nodded.

Natalie replied. "Yeah. Let's find a truck stop and see if anyone might have any thoughts."

Leland said, "Or, better yet…let's find the local Sumner station. Seems like that is this trucker's fuel of choice."


	7. Chapter 7

"No! … I said no! We're not turning around and going back. We've already lost three or four hours and we're way late to getting to Denver." Michael said as the truck headed down Highway 80 at around three o'clock in the afternoon.

"But…we have to stop. I..I need to talk to someone who knows something about the Sumner robberies. Something is not right." Monk responded.

"We'll you're not going to talk about it back there, because we're not turning around." Michael said.

Monk grew quiet. After a few moments, Michael looked over at his dejected friend and had pity. "Can't you just let the police handle it all?"

Adrian looked down and twiddled his thumbs. "I guess…It's just… I was thinking…"

Michael interrupted. "That's the problem. You were thinking! You get yourself in trouble when 'you're just thinking.' Can't you just 'not think' for a while?"

Adrian looked at him. "No."

There was a pregnant pause and then, Michael relented. "Okay! Alright! I'll compromise. I'll do this for you. I was planning on making the Denver stop and going on down to Albuquerque tonight. But, as it stands it is going to be nightfall before we even get to Denver, so if you don't mind postponing the trip a little, we can stop at Rawlins like we originally planned, and you can talk to whoever is working there. But…if they don't know anything, we drop it. Deal?"

Adrian smiled. "Deal!"

* * *

The two men pulled into Sumner Gas at around four o'clock in the afternoon and were surprised to see the police were already there. Michael parked the rig and Adrian put on a ball cap and tried to blend in with the locals in an effort to find out what was going on. As he looked through a pine tree air freshener display, he listened to the clerk give the police his testimony.

"Two guys. One tall, the other shorter and stockier, came in wearing ski masks. The one pulled a gun on me and the other demanded the money. Since Sumner has a rule that whenever we reach five hundred dollars cash, we have to open the safe and deposit half of it, they didn't get that much. Maybe one hundred, two hundred?" the clerk explained.

"Is that all? Ray, that's hardly worth the ink on the report. If it weren't for the fact it was an armed robbery… Did they get anything else?" The officer asked.

"Grabbed a carton of beer and some snacks on the way out. Oh, and they picked up a newspaper as well." Ray replied.

"Did you see which way they went?" the officer asked.

"Yeah. Turned right down there at the stop sign and headed east." Ray answered.

"Okay, if you remember anything else, let us know." The officer said.

Adrian couldn't stand leaving the conversation where it stood.

"Excuse me… but I just happened to overhear you… Did you say there were _two _men?" he asked.

"Yes." Said the clerk, looking between the cop and Adrian.

Adrian scrunched his shoulder and asked, "Did you happen to see…did one of them have an unusual eye color?"

The clerk thought. "Why yes. Kinda yellow-brown. Why do you ask?"

The officer took notes.

"Because this isn't the only Sumner station that they have robbed. We came in from Reno and some guys fitting the same description, one stocky build and the other having amber eyes, have apparently been very busy around here. "he answered.

"Oh yeah. I almost forgot about that. They had someone killed out at Lovelock, Nevada a couple of weeks ago." Ray replied.

"Was it a clerk?" asked Adrian.

"Yeah. Young college kid. Was going to school to be a prosecutor. Just started work there that week. I think his name was Jamie Bledsoe." The clerk responded.

"Could you spell that?" the officer asked.

"Yeah. Bledsoe. B-l-e-d-s-o-e. Hey, do you think the guys who killed Bledsoe are the ones that robbed me?" asked the clerk.

"Possibly." Adrian responded, looking up at a familiar display showing the employees with their regional manager, Frank Lasalle.

"What can you tell me about this guy?" asked Adrian, pointing to Lasalle's photo.

"Who? Lasalle? Hardly ever see him, maybe once, twice a year. Talk to him though." The man said. "He's the regional manner from Denver to the central Pacific."

"When was the last time he was in?" asked Adrian.

"Actually, he was here last week. I had been given the day off. My boss, Terrance Parker, he told me he would handle things." The clerk replied.

Adrian had heard enough. "Okay, thank you. I'll be in touch." He said, as the dumbstruck officer and clerk watched him walk away, not knowing who he was or why he was interested.

* * *

Monk walked out to the rig with his mind sorting through this most recent infusion of information. His thoughts went around and around like water pouring over a waterwheel. Michael asked if he was ready to go and he only nodded. He was too busy doing that 'thinking' that Michael had warned him over – putting together the scenario of 'what happened.'

* * *

About fifteen minutes after Monk left, the officer left as well to go file his report. He walked right past a newspaper display featuring the latest news and a small photograph of Adrian on its cover as a missing person. He did not notice. Unfortunately, the image did not go unnoticed by Paulie, who was with Leroy about an hour ahead of Monk and Michael and on his way to Denver.

* * *

Randy's suggestion proved fruitful for the trio, as some truckers on the route were able to tell them that the most common destinations that truckers were headed towards on that route. The closest major cities were Cheyenne, Wyoming; Lincoln, Nebraska; and Denver, Colorado. While Leland continued to drive, Natalie studied the map and it only took her a few moments before she realized where he was heading.

"Leland. They are going to Denver." She announced.

"How do you know?" he asked.

"Because, the road out of Denver goes straight south into Texas. He's gone to go see Jack." She replied.

Leland looked at her, recognizing her logic, and nodded. "Well, we're coming up on Evanston, Wyoming right now. That's about an hour and a half from Rock Springs. Let's get some gas and grab a bite for the road."

"Let's make it a quick bite." Natalie said. "I feel like we're closing in on him, and I want to get to him before he sees Jack."

"I hear you." Said Leland. "If he is as disoriented as they said, he's going to need to be talked down a bit before he confronts him."

* * *

For the next hour and a half, Monk was quiet. Thinking. Michael was afraid to say another word to him for fear he would want to stop someplace else. But, by the time they reached the fork that would lead to Cheyenne or Denver, it all came together.

"Michael!" Monk said, breaking the silence.

Michael jumped. "Wh-what? You scared me!" He looked over at Monk and saw a satisfied grin appear on Monk's face.

"Sorry. Not really. I've…I've got it!" Monk said.

"You've got what?" Bud responded.

"The case! I've solved the case! … Here's what happened..." Adrian said, stopping with recognition at the normalcy in that phrase that he had used so many times before when breaking a case.

* * *

The clerk at the gas station was shaken. First, he had gotten robbed and then this strange character came in asking all sorts of questions. While the police had already spoken with the Sumner folks to let them know about another robbery, the clerk felt compelled to call Lasalle himself and give him an update. He picked up a cordless phone and walked to the front door, locking up the station. He then went to the back room and looked up Lasalle's personal number. As he straightened up for the night, he told him what had gone on.

"Frankie, it was the scariest thing. There were two of them. I thought they were going to kill me like they did that guy out West." He said.

"I'm sure it was scary. But, you're okay?" Lasalle asked.

"Yeah. Just shaken up. They didn't get much. Just about two hundred dollars and some food." Ray responded.

"Well, what's important is you're safe, Ray. I suppose the police took the report?" he asked.

"Yeah." The clerk said, as he straightened up the counter. "And then this guy in a ball cap came in asking all sorts of questions and telling us about the other robberies. Gave me the willies." Ray replied.

"What did he look like?" asked Lasalle.

"I don't know. He had on a ball cap. But he had dark brown eyes and hair. About my height. Slender build. Blue jeans…" he explained.

"Maybe they're working together as a team." Lasalle suggested.

"I don't think so. He seemed to be trying to catch these guys. Even gave a pretty good description of one of them as having amber eyes, even though they were wearing ski masks. If I didn't know better, I'd think he was a cop too. Just something about the way he carried…"

Ray had begun to straighten up the newspaper racks and had just spotted Monk's picture.

"Ray, you there?" asked Lasalle. "You dropped off on me."

"Yeah…yeah… I'm here." Ray said as he picked up the newspaper to get a closer look. "Hey, Mr. Lasalle. Get this." He said somewhat amused. "The guy I'm talkin' about is on the cover of the newspaper. Missing person. Seems like he's the former deputy director of the FBI. Can I call'em or can I call'em."

"FBI?" asked Lasalle with alarm. "Why would the FBI be checking out a gas station robbery?"

"I said former, Frankie. Guy's name is Monk. Adrian Monk. They say in the caption he went missing on Monday morning. Well…I guess that makes me feel a little better about the guy. If the government trusted him enough to rise to that level, I guess he was okay there. Sorry to have bothered you Frankie. I'm sure they have it all under control." Ray said.

"That's okay, Ray. I'm glad you called. You don't know how glad." Lasalle said before hanging up.

* * *

"Okay, so let me get this straight. You think the robberies aren't about robbing anyone but about covering up a murder?" Michael asked.

"Exactly!" Adrian replied. "Frank Lasalle has apparently been running drugs out of some of his gas stations. Jamie Bledsoe went to work for one of those stations and ran into Frank's stash. Being someone who actually _cared_ about whether the law was obeyed, Bledsoe somehow let Lasalle know that he knew what Lasalle was up to. Next thing you know, Bledsoe is dead and Sumner stations are getting robbed."

"But why would LaSalle have his own shops robbed?" asked Michael. "Wouldn't that draw police into the shops rather than away from them?"

"Only in so far as there would be an interview. You saw how it went. It was a petty crime in each facility. Two hundred dollars? Certainly not something that someone who had committed murder would bother with - _unless_ they needed another explanation for the initial murder.

Bledsoe is believed to have died in a robbery. One like any number of ones in the current spree. Only he didn't. He was either killed by Frank Lasalle or Frank had him killed. Paulie is somehow related to Frank and is acting as his front man in this ruse. Who knows? He may have even been his hitman." Monk suggested.

"Crazy! I mean, really crazy! How do you know these things?" asked Michael.

"It's a gift. And, a curse." Adrian sighed.

"Don't ever call it a curse. It's a gift. For sure, it's a gift. And you should treasure it!" Michael responded.

* * *

As night fell over the cool Wyoming evening, Natalie looked into the darkness and wondered where under that blanket of stars her husband was. She felt that he was physically fine, and apparently was doing what Adrian did with so much of his time, involving himself in solving a case. But was he okay?

She had talked a little with Sharona about his initial reaction to the news and Sharona was able to help her understand more what might be happening. Similar to when he heard the news about Trudy, Adrian had likely psychologically shut out the world so that his mind could process the information that he had just been hit with. It was called dissociative amnesia, and was more common than some might have expected.

As when she first met him, on a certain level, he probably couldn't relate to his real world and therefore was trying to run from it. He did this by shutting out everything he knew. The good news was, most people got their memories back within days weeks or months of an episode.

Calling himself by another name was a new one for her, and she suggested that Natalie call Dr. Bell in Tulsa for his opinion on how to approach Adrian when she saw him. She happened to have his number due to being friends with one of Bell's friends at the hospital she worked at.

She finished the conversation with a word of encouragement for Natalie.

"He loves you, Natalie. More than he's ever loved anybody…maybe even Trudy. Regardless what happened with Dead-Beat Jack, he's not going to leave you forever. You _are_ his family. Your children are an unseverable tie between you two. He'll be back." Sharona said, before hanging up.

* * *

Finally reaching Denver, some four hours out of Rawlins, Michael's Rig pulled into the hotel parking lot, and the two travel buddies got out and stretched their weary muscles.

"That bed is sure going to feel good tonight." Michael said.

"I hear you." Adrian said, looking up at the starry sky. "It's so clear tonight."

"Yes. The night sky is always a lovely sight. Particularly when you're away from the streetlights. Makes you feel really small." Said Michael.

About thirty feet from the entrance of the hotel, Adrian stopped in his tracks.

Michael walked about five more feet and then turned around. "What's wrong?"

Adrian raised one hand and turned around, walking back to a car about three spaces back in the parking lot.

"This. This sedan." Said Adrian.

Michael walked up by him. "Yeah, what about it?"

Monk walked all around the car, looking it over. "This is _the_ car."

"Sorry, I'm not following." Michael replied.

"It's the getaway car. The one they used back in Reno..." He thought then looked at Michael. "Bud, that must mean Paulie and Leroy are here at this hotel." Monk said, looking up at the building.

Michael looked at him strangely. "Adrian, you're tired. This can't be the same car."

"Yes. it is. Same left taillight busted out." Adrian replied.

"A lot of cars have their taillights out." Said Michael.

"Same grey color." Monk noted.

"That's common too." Michael countered.

"Stolen plates." Monk responded.

"That's common t…stolen plates? How do you figure they are stolen?" asked Michael.

"It had Nevada plates back in Reno." Monk said.

"Yeah…" Michael said, dubiously.

"These are Wyoming plates." Monk explained.

"Yes. We just went through Wyoming." Michael replied.

"Specifically, Wyoming agriculture plates. See right there, that's an agricultural vehicle sticker. Wyoming requires it of all vehicles that have to haul …well, agricultural products." Monk replied.

"Okay. So?" Michael questioned.

"There's no trailer hitch on this car. It can't haul anything." Monk responded with a smile.

Michael looked at the car and then looked at Monk with amazement.

"Wow! How do you come up with this stuff? You must have an IQ of 150 or higher." Michael said.

"187" Monk said, modestly. My mother had my brother and I tested when we were young…Wait!" he threw his arm out as his mind began to click. "Michael! I have a brother!" Adrian said.

"Really? Michael responded.

"Yeah. His name is…Ambrose! Ha! I have a brother named Ambrose! Ambros-Monk! My last name is Monk! My name is Adrian Monk! Wait?" he screwed up his face. "My name is _Adrian Monk_?" he twitched, then continued. "And, I have a brother named Ambrose, and, he …he lives in Marin County, and he was at my and Nat…" Adrian gasped and tears filled his eyes. "Oh, Michael! I remember! Ambrose came to my and Natalie's wedding! Natalie! Natalie! Natalie! Is that not the most beautiful sound you've ever heard! What a beautiful name! I remember! Oh, sweet Natalie! And…and, my best friend is Leland! And we named our son after him! I have a son, and his name is Leland and a daughter named Abigail!" Adrian said, both laughing and crying and physically demonstrating relief and joy.

"That's wonderful, Adrian! See, I told you that you would remember!" Michael said, patting him on the back.

"Oh, Michael! I'm so happy! Have I ever been this happy? I was happier at my wedding and the birth of my children but this is a close third. I remember! I remember their names, isn't that wonderful?!" he said.

"Just great!" said a voice stepping from out of the shadows. "We'll remember to include each name in your obituary, Adrian Monk!"

The voice was that of Paulie who broke the moment by holding a gun to Monk's rib cage. Leroy had stepped in at the same time, and had Michael corned with his own weapon.

"Move!" Paulie said, pointing the gun at them and walking them towards one of the rooms on the ground floor of the facility.

"Where are you take taking us?" asked Adrian.

"Room 114. It's up to the boss what we do with you from here, but I can guarantee, it won't be pleasant." Leroy said with a maniacal laugh.

Opening the door, they pushed the two men inside and then tied them up with rope, awaiting Frank Lasalle's call.


	8. Chapter 8

"Okay…for five points, where does the word 'WYOMING' come from? Commissioner Stottlemeyer." Randy asked from the back of Leland's SUV as Natalie drove them towards Denver.

"I have no earthly idea." Leland said, adding "And neither would you if you didn't have that dang hand-held computer in front of your face."

"Ohhhh! Wrong answer. I'm sorry. The correct answer is from a Lenape Indian word _mecheweami-ing_, meaning 'on the big plain'. Your turn, Mrs. Monk."

"Randy, pick something easier. There's no way we're going to get these." She said.

"Easier? Like what?" he asked.

"Ummmm….what are we all in to? How about, Crime Shows?" she suggested.

"Ah…crime shows. Gotcha. Just a second." He said, searching for something to ask. After a few moments, he continued.

"Okay, Mrs. Monk, this crime show ran from 1968 to 2003 and featured a trench-coat clad detective…" Randy said.

"Columbo!" Natalie answered.

"You are correct. Leland Stottlemeyer. Your turn. This 1997 Fox action series starred former American football star Brian Bosworth as a private investigator."

"Bosworth starred as a detective?" asked Leland.

"You have five seconds, Leland." Said Randy.

"Heck if I know." he replied as Randy made a buzzing sound with his mouth.

"The correct answer is 'Lawless'" Randy said.

"Never heard of it." Leland replied.

"Obviously not, or you would have gotten it. Natalie, you're up. This detective show ran from 1980-1988 and featured a mustached private investigator living in Oahu, Hawaii.."

"Magnum P.I." Natalie answered.

"And you are correct! Leland, how many episodes were there of the show "Public Morals?"

"Public Morals? I don't know. 23." Leland replied.

"No. The correct answer is one." Randy said.

"How am I supposed to know that?" Leland asked.

"You're the Police Commissioner. You're supposed to know these things." Randy said.

"I'm supposed to know about a TV show that was cancelled after one episode?" Leland replied.

"Yeah. Pretty much everybody knows about it." Randy countered.

"I didn't know about it." Natalie volunteered.

"Nor did I...nor did you, Mr. Disher." Said Leland.

"I did too! I DVRed it." He said.

"You DVRed a TV show that got cancelled after one episode?" Natalie asked.

"Yeah. I need to keep up with the latest technology and methods." Randy explained.

"And you get this from television programs?" Leland asked.

"Absolutely!" Randy replied.

"Well, that explains eleven years with the SFPD." Leland cracked.

"Randy, can we switch to something else?" Natalie asked.

"Uh, yeah. I guess. What do you want to play?" he asked.

"Who can be quiet the longest." Leland responded.

Randy snarled his face, and went back to looking at his cell phone. After a few minutes he spoke again.

"Do you all know how many semis are on the road at any given time in America?" he asked.

"I thought we were done with trivia." Leland said.

"No. This isn't for a contest. Do you know how many?" Randy asked.

"No idea." Leland said.

"About one and a half million." Randy answered. "And we're looking for one. One out of literally over a million. How are we supposed to find Monk in all that?"

Leland thought. "Tips. That's what we have to go on at this point."

"We've only gotten a couple of those so far. Randy's right. Denver's a big place. How are we supposed to know where to find him?" Natalie asked.

Leland didn't answer. He knew that it was a long shot as it was, but was driven to find his friend and did not want the odds to make them depressed.

"I don't know. But we will. Got another game, Disher?" Stottlemeyer asked.

Just then, the SUV's indicator light came on and there was a beeping sound. Natalie looked down.

"Uh oh." She said.

"What's wrong?" Leland asked.

"We're running out of gas." Natalie answered.

Leland turned around to Randy. "I thought I told you to fuel up at the last stop."

Randy looked shocked. "Me? I thought you were asking me '_feel_ up?' as in am I feeling positive and happy. I'm always positive and happy. Almost always."

Leland shook his head and looked around. "What mile marker are we?"

Natalie said "We're just west of Rawlins. About a mile and a half."

"Okay, we need to pull over and get some gas. And then, maybe _Disher_ can give you a break rather than looking at his cell phone." Leland responded.

* * *

As Natalie pulled off of the exit, they made their way towards the nearest gas station, which just happened to be Sumner Gas. As they pulled into the station, however, they were surprised to see the parking lot full of police cars and an ambulance.

Natalie parked the car at one of the pumps, and the three friends exited the vehicle, walking up to the officer on duty just inside the store. Leland flashed a badge as he walked up.

"Leland Stottlemeyer, Commissioner, SFPD. What's going on here?" he asked.

The officer looked at him. "San Francisco. You're a bit out of your jurisdiction, aren't you Commissioner?"

"We're looking for a missing person. Adrian Monk. This is Randy Disher who heads up the police force in Summit, New Jersey and Natalie Monk, an investigator in her own right and the wife of the missing man." Leland explained.

"Sergeant Tom Taylor. Rawlins PD. We're here investigating a homicide. Ray Adkins. Sales Clerk here at the gas station. We were up here earlier today when there was a report of a robbery. Apparently, Ray was kinda freaked out by the event and shut up shop early. We have a witness who said that she came to the station about an hour ago and found the lights were on, but everything was locked up. She knocked on the door to see if there was anyone inside, and she spotted the victim's feet poking out from behind the counter. He'd been shot dead." Taylor said.

"Any witnesses as to the actual robbery?" Leland asked.

"Only Ray. But, a guy who was here earlier today seemed to know a lot about a crime spree that has been going on at Sumner Stations the past few weeks." The officer responded.

"What did he look like?" Leland asked.

"A little shorter than you. Dark hair. Ball cap." Taylor responded.

"Like this?" Randy asked, holding up the newspaper.

"Yeah. That's they guy!" Taylor said. "So, your missing person was here about five or six hours ago, about an hour after the joint got robbed?"

"And you spoke with him?" asked Randy.

"Yeah. A bit. He mostly just asked questions from Ray." Taylor said.

"Did he seem okay?" Natalie asked.

"You mean physically? Seemed fine. He was pretty focused on questioning Ray. We didn't get much of a chance to talk about anything else." He responded. "So, this guy is your husband?"

"Yes." She said.

"We think it's possible he has Stockholm Syndrome." Disher noted.

"RANDY! Stop!" Leland ordered. "We do _not_ think he has Stockholm Syndrome. But, we do need to find him. Anything else you might know about where he went or who these robbers are? If we knew that much we might have a better idea where to look."

"Bill is going through the Station's surveillance tape right now. You can come on back and look if you like." Taylor responded.

Taylor and the three friends went back to a back room where Bill Freeman was slowly reviewing frame by frame of people who had come and gone that day. At one point, Paulie and Leroy appeared in face masks. They watched as they robbed Ray and then watched as they left, taking items with them as they did. Shortly after they left, they saw the police pull up and begin questioning.

Next, they watched as Adrian walked into the store, began looking through air fresheners and then slowly made his way to the checkout counter.

"Adrian!" Natalie said, her eyes getting misty.

Leland watched as well. "He's in his investigation zone. Look at him. He seems to know something. If only we could read his mind."

As they kept watching him, they noticed as he raised his hands ever so briefly, framing the scene and then looked over at the photo display on the wall.

"Is he smiling? He's smiling! He found something." Natalie said.

Adrian quickly dismissed himself and walked out the door, and soon the team saw the outside of the 18 wheeler going by the door.

"Stop that for a second." Leland said. "What does that say?"

"Sentry Trucking, Los Angeles, California." Randy said.

"Hey, we have a name!" Natalie said with excitement. "Maybe we can call and find out which truckers are running out in this area."

"Great idea. Randy, see if you can get us a number." Leland replied. " I want to see who it was that came in afterward."

Leland and Natalie watched for another ten minutes, witnessing Ray shut up the shop and walk around talking on the cell phone. They were interrupted in their viewing by Taylor who suggested that they were going to wrap everything up right after the tape viewing was done.

Leland turned to Natalie. "I'll stay here and watch the rest of this. I'm interested in who visited Mr. Adkins. You go over to that board and put on your best Monk mind and try to figure out what it was he saw."

"Will do!" Natalie said with enthusiasm.

About five minutes later, the tape viewing was done and a somewhat somber Stottlemeyer walked to the front of the store, joining Randy and Natalie.

"Okay, what do you have for me, Disher?" he asked.

Randy held out his ever-present notepad. "No listing for Sentry Trucking. Tried several variations. Did my own search on the internet. Doesn't exist." Randy answered.

"Great." Stottlemeyer said sarcastically. "Kinda like the twenty minutes in the middle of the surveillance tape."

"The tape is missing twenty minutes?" asked Natalie.

"Yes. Tape is going on as normal and suddenly you see a flash in the footage and then Adkin's feet magically appear behind the counter. Clock on the wall jumps about twenty minutes between flashes."

"Someone turned off the video." Natalie stated.

"Inside job?" Randy surmised.

"That's what we're thinking." Said Leland. "I hope you had better luck, Mrs. Monk."

"I believe I did. Adrian was looking at a display of employees on the wall. I figured that he believes one of them is involved somehow in these crimes. So…I checked the telephone to see what the last number was that Ray Adkins used when dialing out."

"And?" Leland asked.

"It matched the number on this card. Frank Lasalle, who just happens to be the Regional Manager for this station." Natalie said. "And…he was featured prominently on the display that Adrian was looking at."

Leland put his hands on his hips and thought. "Okay. That's about as good of a clue as any. The police report in Reno said that Monk identified the people who robbed that station as Paulie and Leroy. Let's see if Taylor knows anything about this Lasalle and whether or not he might be connected with a Paulie or Leroy. Taylor, can you come here a minute?"

Taylor walked over. "Yes, Commissioner. What do you have?"

"Frank Lasalle. What do you know about him?" he asked.

"Frankie? He was born out East someplace and came here probably about ten years ago. Has a ranch between here and Casper. He manages most of the Sumner stations between here and California." Taylor answered.

"Do you know if he deals with anyone named Paulie or Leroy?" Leland asked.

"Yeah. Paulie LaSalle is his kid brother. Haven't seen him in a while. Last time I saw him, he was in lockup for assault. Rough kid. Frankie gives off the appearance of being more urbane. Why do you ask?" Taylor replied.

"We have reason to believe that Paulie LaSalle may have been the one who robbed this and other Sumner stations." Leland responded.

"Rob his own brother? Why would he do that?" asked Taylor.

"We don't think he would." Randy answered. "They may be in on it together."

"I don't understand." Taylor replied.

"Do you mind if I look around a moment?" Leland asked.

"No. Go ahead." The officer answered.

Leland walked to the back of the store and found the "Employees Only" door that he had seen at each Sumner station they stopped at since Reno. Walking inside, he saw where supplies had been pushed over. Randy walked over behind him along with Taylor.

"Someone was in here." Randy said.

"Yes, and I think they took something out of here." Stottlemeyer added. Leaning down, he saw a small amount of white powder on the floor.

"Sergeant Taylor, you have a drug kit?" he asked.

"Yeah. Out in the car. Just a minute." Taylor said, excusing himself. After about a minute he returned and Leland gathered some of the powder for testing. It tested positive.

Taylor looked at the results. "Looks like your Mr. Monk is on the trail of some murderous drug runners."

"But, of course he is." Natalie said, shaking her head.

Not willing to allow her mind to go dark places, Leland stood up and thanked Taylor, letting him know they needed to go. After stopping at a gas station on the opposite side of the road, Randy took the wheel and Leland sat in the front seat trying to encourage Natalie to think positively.

"Natalie. Someone must be looking out for us, because just before we got off at that exit we didn't have any way of recognizing the semi, and we were always lagging one step behind. Now, I think we're on the same general page as Monk and we know what we're looking for in terms of a semi. That's progress." Leland said.

"But Randy said that there was no such trucking company." She said.

"Maybe it's new. Or maybe it's a private company. Monk looks well. You can be thankful for that, because the description of him leaving town was not good." He said. "We're right on his trail and we're going to find him. Try to get a little rest while we drive. We're about 4 hours from Denver. Who knows what we're going to get into once we find him."


	9. Chapter 9

The ropes around Adrian Monk's torso were tied tightly, but he had seen tighter. His mind flashed back to one occasion where he was trying to solve his neighbor Kevin Dorfman's murder and he was being held captive by a magician, about to be thrust into a burning furnace. That _seemed_ to him a more perilous time than the present. Particularly since he wasn't alone this time. He had Michael, who, while also bound with ropes, provided a comforting presence for him in the midst of the two despicable thugs.

Another comfort was the fact that while things were still somewhat fuzzy in his mind, the main aspects of his life had come back to him.

He had remembered Natalie, and his soul wanted to soar with rapturous waves of joy at the thought of her.

He also remembered Lee and Abby, of whom he still stood amazed seeing that he had never visualized himself as a father.

He remembered Trudy, her life, her death, and the many years of pain he went through mourning her. Even now, his heart ached at her memory. She was his life through early adulthood and when she died, a huge part of him died as well. He thought that part was gone forever. He never believed it could be born again. Yet somehow lightning struck twice, and he was once again with a woman that he loved more than life itself. That thought alone left him awestricken.

He remembered his other friends and family. Leland, his faithful friend who had seen him when he was at his lowest and rejoiced with him when he was at his highest. Watching Leland go through a bitter divorce and a wonderful remarriage made Monk feel that he had reciprocated that faithful status just a bit.

He remembered Randy, a lovable and eager investigator, who made up for with zeal what he lacked in deductive ability. Dear Randy was someone who had grown from just another mocking member of the police force to someone he was happy to call a trusted friend.

Then there was Ambrose, his beloved brother, who had experienced the same childhood as he and survived it, and was just now beginning to blossom thanks to his wife Heather. Ambrose was always so insecure about everything. If only he knew how proud Adrian was of him.

And then, there were his supposed parents, Agnes and Jack Monk. Each complex and sad in their own way, each having affected their sons lives and decisions profoundly, and each of whom had a shrouded mystery that was now coming forward with a vengeance, and had set this whole debacle in motion.

Yes, he remembered. He remembered helping Ambrose move, and he remembered the medical bill. Male Sterilization. September 1958. Adrian was born in October 1959. The math didn't work.

This remembrance alone brought Adrian deeply back into his own head as he wondered, was the fact that he always felt like he didn't fit in bolstered by the fact that in all actuality, from conception forward, he really didn't? It was a huge pill for him to swallow. And yet now, forced by ropes that held him in place, keeping him from the impulse to once again run away, he had to deal with this knowledge and how he would handle it from here – that is, assuming he had the chance to do anything with it at all.

He sat silently for the longest time, while activity went about all around him. Leroy ordered pizza for himself and Paulie, and the smell of the tomato sauce made his hungry stomach ache, but he and Michael were not offered anything. No food. No water. No comfort. Just a cold and indifferent silence which exacerbated the anxiety surrounding the question of what would become of them.

One hour passed. Two hours. Finally, at a little before one o'clock a knock came on the door and Paulie jumped up to answer it. Looking through the peep hole he turned to Leroy and smiled. "It's him!"

He opened the door and Frank LaSalle walked in, tired from the four-hour drive and spattered with blood from the murder of Ray Adkins. He smoked a cigar and resembled an older Al Capone, complete with expensive shoes, suit and necktie.

The two men hugged, and ashes dropped from the end of his cigar onto the floor.

"Paulie! Is good seeing you, my brother!" he said, patting him on the shoulder as he stepped away. "And, you must be Leroy?"

"Yes, sir." Leroy said, standing as tall and straight as his stocky frame would allow.

"Nice work, son. Nice work. But…not nice enough." He told him, pinching his cheek. "Looks like you guys have left us with a little cleanup work to do. I already took care of part of it."

"The clerk?" asked Paulie.

"Yeah, Ray never saw it coming. The idiot. And now, I've got to come to show you guys how to take care of the rest. I presume that these two fellows are our other remaining witnesses?" he asked.

"Yeah. This is Adrian Monk. Former Deputy Director of the FBI, and the other guy is a trucker. His license in his rig says his name is Michael Matus, from out of Los Angeles" Paulie said, introducing his brother to the captives.

Frank leaned in and got face to face with Adrian, removing the cigar from his mouth and blowing out a huge puff of smoke right into Monk's face. "So, we have a former federal officer here. Pleased to meet your acquaintance. Sorry our time together will be so short."

Adrian coughed at the smoke and refused to speak, but a growing anger filled his eyes, just as Frank stood up and walked over to Michael. Getting down at eye level again, he smiled as spoke to Bud. "And, Mr. Matus. How on earth would you have gotten hooked up with a man of Mr. Monk's stature? Did he hire you to drive him? But that wouldn't make sense. Perhaps he needed a ride and you were a good Samaritan to him….ah yes, that's it….You have a kindness in your eyes…the kind of kindness I take pleasure in removing. You'll be dead by sunrise."

Michael just looked back at Frank without emotion.

"Guess this is one hitchhiker that Matus will wish that he never picked up." Said Paulie with a laugh.

Adrian thought about the danger Michael was now in because of his inquisitive nature and a feeling of shame came over him for having led him into danger. He looked up at Michael with an almost apologetic look, but Michael, seeing the look in his eyes simply said with firmness and a smile. "Mr. LaSalle. I have no regrets."

Adrian's feeling of shame was replaced with a mixture of peace and sadness as he watched this stranger who had become a friend stand in the face of danger and not flinch. What an admirable fellow this was. He felt sad that he might never get to know this friendship more.

* * *

While Randy drove across the Colorado border, it was Natalie who was busy using the "pocket computer" otherwise known as a cell phone. She had tapped into the state of California penal system and pulled up prisoner pictures. In so doing, she had discovered that Paulie Lasalle was an escaped convict with several aliases. Paul Lassiter, Paulie Lorens, Paul Salzman were three of the names.

"Leland, look at this." She said, showing him the mug shot.

"This the guy?" he asked.

"Yeah. Says he escaped from Avenal State Penitentiary in Kings County in early July." She said.

"I heard about an escape there. I don't recall them saying that the guy's name was Paulie though." Leland replied.

"You were visiting us in Boston at the time of his escape." She answered. "You may have never gotten the name."

"You're right. I remember that now." He said. "Seems like forever ago. So, this is the brother? What about the Leroy character?"

"Only Leroy I found was a mention of a Leroy Maines who Paulie was locked up with after an assault conviction when he was a teenager." She said. "No mug shot for him as they were juveniles."

"Yet, Monk said in that police report that he was of a stocky build." Randy said.

"Yeah. That's something to go off of." She replied. "What's the plan for when we get into Denver?"

"Well, I don't know about you, but all of this driving has taken a toll. I figure we can find the closest hotel and room there for the night and start out fresh in the morning looking for Monk." Leland replied.

"That sounds good. We don't want to doddle though. That truck driver may want to get an early start and then we'll lose him again." Natalie replied.

"Yeah. Not only that. But I believe that violent criminals like the Lasalle Gang tend to be early risers too." Randy proposed.

"_The Lasalle Gang_?" Stottlemeyer asked.

"I dubbed them that. It's like Bonnie and Clyde. Only, with men." Randy replied.

This suggestion caused Natalie to finally burst out laughing.

"What? What's so funny?" Randy asked.

"Oh. Nothing." Natalie said. "I was just thinking of something."

Leland's eyes twinkled as he watched her laugh. It was a good sight to see and indicative that she had begun to relax a bit when it came to Adrian. Nevertheless, he had not put aside the fact that his number one job was to get those two friends of his back together. Only then would he actually relax.

* * *

At 1:30 AM, they received a text from state law enforcement. A truck matching the description of the truck Adrian was traveling in had been spotted in a parking lot of a hotel in Aurora, Colorado. They gave Leland the address and told him that state police would be standing at the ready monitoring the vehicle and awaiting the San Francisco contingent's arrival.

By the time they arrived, it was almost 2:30 AM but despite the late hour, none of the friends felt the least bit tired. They had real hope that they had at long last tracked him down.

Pulling into the parking lot, they were debriefed by law enforcement who stated that there was no record of an Adrian Monk at the hotel or Adrian Smith. However, they could have checked in under a different name. There had been two men check in earlier in the evening, but neither of them had matched Monk's description. There had been no one to go in or out of the truck since the officers arrived.

Natalie stood on the running board and looked into the truck's cabin, hoping she could verify that it was indeed the truck that Adrian had been riding in. She received as good of a confirmation as any when she spotted a packet of wipes and a six pack of Summit Creek water sitting on the console.

"It's him! He's here!" she said, jumping down from the rig and joining her two friends in a group hug.

"But which room are they in?" Randy asked.

"I think our best bet is to stay out here tonight and wait and see when they come to the truck in the morning." Natalie said.

"Natalie, let the locals do the stake out. You need to get some sleep and so do we." Leland replied.

"But…" she protested.

"Remember what I said for keeping your strength up for Adrian?" he reminded her. "You guys can handle this? I don't have to worry that you'll let them get away?" he said to the officers on duty.

"You don't have to worry a bit, Commissioner. We will keep an eye on everything." He replied.

"Great. See. It'll be just fine." Said Leland.

* * *

As the three friends walked into the hotel lobby, Randy looked at travel brochures while Natalie watched the weather report on a television and Leland checked in. Picking up two key cards, one for her room and one for the men's they walked back out into the evening, deep in conversation.

As they turned a corner, Natalie lagged slightly behind and ran into a man going the opposite direction.

"Oh, I'm sorry!" she said, getting a good look at his face and then freezing as she looked into the face of Paulie Lasalle.

"My fault." He said, walking past her into the hotel lobby with an ice bucket in his hand.

She ran quickly to catch up with the men and grabbed Leland by the sleeve.

"That guy back there that I just ran into…it was Paulie Lasalle!" she said, urgently.

"What?! Are you sure?" he asked.

"I am positive. What do we do?" she asked.

"Lasalle is staying here?" Disher asked, pondering.

Leland watched through the glass as Lasalle filled the ice bucket with ice.

"We hang back and see where he goes." Leland said.

The three friends walked casually back out into the parking lot, hiding behind a car hood unobserved. Then, they watched Lasalle carry his bucket out of the lobby and down the row of doors to room 114. Using his keycard, he opened the door. Frank Lasalle, with his ever present cigar, met him there, poking his head out the door and looking both ways. The door was open only a short time, but it was long enough for Natalie to see Adrian, bound with rope and his trucker friend tied up next to him.

"Leland! They're in there! They are with those murderers!" she whispered.

"I saw!" he replied.

"We've got to save him!" Natalie responded.

Leland thought. "Randy. Go grab those two cops. If Lasalle has Monk and the trucker and is holding them captive, he probably knows that Monk knows too much. He'll want to be getting rid of witnesses. We have to make sure that he does not succeed."

"Sure thing, Commissioner!" Disher replied.

As Randy went back by the rig to talk to the cops, Leland looked at Natalie.

"Young lady, you have to put your emotions to the side right now and focus. This may get a bit scary, but what is it that your mother always says…?" he asked.

"Soldier on." She replied.

"That's right. You have to soldier on, as if Adrian's life depends on it. Because it very well may." He finished.


	10. Chapter 10

"Alright, so after we snuff 'em out…how are we going to get the bodies out of here to dispose of them?" Leroy asked Frank Lassalle.

"That's the easy part. We'll just get one of those maid carts and wheel them out one at a time." he replied.

"But, what if they don't fit?" Leroy asked.

Frank reached into his pocket and pulled out a switchblade. Flicking it open, he said, "We've got ways."

Adrian twitched his neck as he listened to the two men who were becoming more and more inebriated as the night passed.

"Don't worry, Adrian." Michael whispered. "I have a plan."

"Hey Paulie, man…what's up, did you fall in or something?" Leroy asked his partner in crime who had been in the restroom for the past twenty minutes.

"Shut up, Leroy! I told you I have a sensitive stomach." Paulie said from behind the door.

"Well, make sure you turn on the fan." Frank said. "He's been that way since he was a kid. I think he's lactose intolerant or something."

They heard the toilet flush and within a few moments Paulie came out into the room refastening his belt.

* * *

"Okay, here's my plan. Now that he's out, I need for you to ask permission to go to the restroom, then I'll…" Michael whispered.

"Wait! What?" Adrian said, interrupting.

"You need to ask to go to the restroom." Michael repeated.

"I … I don't think so!" Monk replied slowly.

"Why not?" Michael asked.

Monk raised his eyebrows, ducked his chin, and looked between Paulie and Michael.

"Oh, for Pete's sake!" he said, then gaining control of his frustration. "Listen, Adrian, it's either this or end up being found in pieces stuffed inside a maid's cart."

Adrian thought about it.

"Well, at least the cart would be clean. They carry all of the cleaning supplies." He responded.

"Yeah…and all of the dirty linens that everyone else has slept in and the towels they have washed their dirty bodies with…" Michael replied.

This thought merited two neck twitches and a slight shimmy from Monk as he considered the thought.

"Alright. What's your plan?" he asked.

Michael leaned over. "Listen, When I first joined the Army, I received special training in warfare tactics. These guys have clearly had one too many, and I think our best shot is for you to get to a point of safety and then maybe I can overpower them."

"Three guys?" Adrian asked.

"No. Two. Just wait for it." Michael replied.

Adrian looked curious, but said nothing.

After a few seconds, Frank took a drink from his glass and then cursed angrily! "What the #$!" he said, taking his glass and slamming it down on the end table.

"What? What is it?" Leroy asked.

"There's a stinkin' hair in my glass! Paulie! How many times do I have to tell you not to brush your hair around the food!" he said.

"I – I didn't!" Paulie replied.

"The heck you didn't. Look at this! Ain't nobody in this room got hair like that." He said, standing up and walking over to the ice bucket. "Probably did it while you were out of the room getting ice." He took the ice bucket and emptied it into the sink. "Here, take this back to the lobby and get us a refill! And do it right this time!"

Paulie shook his head and grabbed the bucket. "Okay, boss." He said, before stomping out the door.

* * *

"Bannister!" said Captain James Petrey of the Aurora, Colorado PD.

"Yes sir!" Bannister said, walking up.

"I want you and Will to go around to the back and climb along the balcony right here to approach them from above. Rockford, you and Martin approach from the front. Remember, you must act discretely. There are hostages in there and we do not want any collateral damage." the officer said.

"Yes sir!" both teams said, as they headed to their respective points.

"Petrey." Said Stottlemeyer, walking up to the officer, with one hand on his hip and the other rubbing his neck. "Are you sure you are not taking an unnecessary risk here? These men have already killed two and they have taken captive someone that is very important to us – not to mention the risk to your men. You can't just barge in there. It's too dangerous."

"Listen, Stottlemeyer. I may not be a Commissioner of some metropolitan police force, but, I know what I'm doing. We've been extensively trained in SWAT tactics and are following the protocol assigned in a scenario such as this." Petrey replied.

"You very well may be," Stottlemeyer countered, "but text book definitions do not apply to all situations. Monk is…well, he can be somewhat delicate sometimes."

"Delicate?" Petrey asked.

"Fragile. Mentally." He said. "He's been through a rough time recently."

"He mean's he freaks out sometimes in stressful situations." Randy stated, walking up with Natalie to join the conversation.

"Every hostage situation is stressful and we're certainly used to people 'freaking out' as you say. We've got the situation handled." The officer stated, beginning to walk away.

"I'm sure you do…or at least you believe you do. It's just…we know Monk. We know how to handle him. If two complete strangers come up to the door trying to barge in, who is to say how he would react? But, if people he knows come to the door then he's smart enough to realize that they are likely here to rescue him and will be less apt to …you know…panic….Listen, Petrey. He's not only important to us, he is a high profile person whose personal welfare matters to a lot of people…including the President of the United States. If something happened to him…the officer in charge would be held personally responsible." Leland replied.

Petrey paused. "Fine. What do you suggest, Commissioner?" he asked.

* * *

Inside the room, Michael whispered to Monk "Now! Ask him."

"Ask me what?" said Frank, as he pulled out another cigar and lit it.

Adrian watched as the smoke billowed through the air.

"Um…could you put that out?" Adrian asked.

"What? This?" Frank replied. "Why would I want to do that?"

"Uh…well…this is a non-smoking facility and…." Adrian said, with a twitch.

"They can take their non-smoking rules and shove it you know where! I'm paying for this room. I'll do what I want." Said Frank.

"Of course…of course you will, Mr. Lasalle…what my friend Adrian here meant to say was that we've been seated here a very long time and … well, as nature would have it, we haven't had a break in hours."

"A break? Only break you're gonna get is maybe your neck." He replied.

Michael laughed nervously. "That's all good and well, and you may certainly do that. But, in the mean time, we both just really need to use the facilities. If you don't mind, sir."

Frank looked at them through the smoke.

"You. Trucker guy." Said Frank.

"Michael." He replied.

"Okay, Michael. Because you called me sir, you can go. This other guy, Monk, he wasn't so respectful. He can wait. Hey, Leroy. Get over here and untie this guy so that he can use the John."

* * *

"You sure this is going to work, Commissioner?" Randy said as he walked down the sidewalk towards room 114.

"It's the best shot we have at getting in there without gunfire. Just be prepared to draw once we breach the parameter." Leland replied. "Now, sing."

Randy began:

_Blame it all on my ruh-roooots  
I showed up in boots  
And ruin-yer bllack tie ahffffair_

_Wuz the last one to know  
The last one to know…._

"Oh wait…I already sang that…" Randy said, feigning drunk, and bouncing his body against the window with a laugh.

Leland grabbed him by the shoulder and leaned forward.

"Th-thasss okay.. Ruh..ruhandy. I thhink this is our room." He slurred loudly, stopping outside room 114.

Sticking his key into the door, he made a big show of it not working, pushing and banging on the door from the outside.

By this point, Michael's knots were just being untied and he was still standing next to Leroy.

Frank looked over at Leroy and said "Can you get that?"

"I'm busy." Leroy replied.

"Fine." He said, standing up and walking over to the door.

He turned the handle, and opened the door.

"Listen buddy, it's almost three o'clock in the morning and you have the wrong room, why don't you…" he said.

Leland quickly sized up the situation in the room and realized that the element of surprise was the best shot they had, so he pulled back his fist and quickly and forcefully hit Frank square the jaw and then dived on him as Randy made his way towards Leroy.

Before Randy could walk three steps, Paulie returned with the ice and threw the bucket at Randy, hitting him in the head. Randy turned his attention to Paulie and began to scuffle with him. Paulie pushed Randy hard to the ground and then kicked him before running out the door and out of their reach.

Meanwhile, Leroy pulled out his gun and now hid behind Michael, training his gun on both Monk and Michael. As Randy looked his way, Leroy said , "Don't move, or these guys both get it! I mean it! I'll kill them! Now, just move out of the way. And nobody will get hurt."

Leland laid on the ground, having beaten Lasalle into what he believed was a dazed stupor, and looked over at Monk who was staring back at Leland with combined smile with recognition and thankfulness for what his friend had tried to do, and a resignation that the plan was going to fail.

For Leland's part, there was no way he was going to let them take Monk away, so he reached towards his back to retrieve his gun, only to find that Lasalle had removed it and was now pointing it at his back. Leland closed his eyes, knowing he was beat.

"Get up!" Lasalle stated. "Hands on your head."

* * *

Outside, Natalie had been pacing for the past ten minutes. She didn't like being excluded from the operation and was desperate to know what was going on. When they saw Paulie run from the room, she got very worried. Some officers took chase, but he eluded their capture. Now that things had grown very quiet, she could not restrain herself any longer. She began walking towards the room.

"Mrs. Monk. Where are you going? Stay here!' said Petrey.

"Sorry. No can do." She replied, ignoring his pleas.

She made her way over to a door marked "Cleaning Staff" and opened it. Inside, she found a maid's cart and uniform. It was all she would need for her effort.

* * *

Randy and Leland stood slowly and began to walk towards Monk and Michael as Frank and Leroy moved towards the door side by side, now training their weapons on four men.

"Looks like the maid service is going to have a whale of a mess to clean up." Said Frank, backing up towards the partially open door.

By now, Natalie had made her way to room 114 and positioned the cart outside the door.

"The question is. Who goes first? Is it you? The one who cut my lip and made it to bleed? I don't like when people hurt me. Maybe you should pay first. Or is it you…the one fought with my brother Paulie? Or how about you, Mr. Trucker? Do you think you should go first? Or what about Mr. Monk…the one everyone's so interested in saving. Yes. He would be the best one to start with, so you all have just a little moment to consider what you've done before you die. Any last words, Mr. Monk?" he said as he trained his weapon directly at Adrian.

At that very moment, Natalie rammed the cart through the door, causing the door to hit Frank Lasalle and knocking him to the ground. The gun flew out of his hand and discharged a round harmlessly into the wall.

Michael ran to aid Adrian while Leland and Randy made a run for Leroy, who fired two rounds from his pistol missing both men before being tackled. As his arm hit the ground, however, a third round was expelled from his pistol. This time, it was headed straight for Adrian Monk's chest.

Adrian watched the world as it turned into slow motion and the bullet propelled its way towards him while a horrified Natalie, Leland and Randy watched on.

About one foot away from him, however, the most amazing thing occurred.

Michael looked at Adrian, then towards the ceiling, and finally at the flying projectile. In that split second, he reached one hand outward and it was as if the bullet hit an invisible wall. Adrian's jaw dropped open as he watched the projectile simply stop, mid air, and flatten out, shattering into a thousand pieces. The entire room grew quiet, including Lasalle and Leroy.

Adrian turned to Michael and stared at him with astonishment. With amazement, he spoke to him. "Who…or _what_ are you?"

Michael smiled, and patted Adrian on the shoulder. "I told you, Adrian. I'm a man on a mission. My mission was to keep you safe until your people could find you. Now, I must go."

The stranger stood and dipped his head as he passed by Leland, Randy and finally Natalie. "You people take good care of my friend. He's a good man. Adrian, don't get too tied up in minutia and lose the big picture of what you have. And Natalie, you're prettier than he even described to me. Keep the faith, little lady. You to have been given something precious. Enjoy every moment of it. Adrian, I'll see you later!" he said, before walking out the door and out of their world.

* * *

Twenty seconds after Michael left the hotel room, members of the Aurora police department came in and collected Frank Lasalle and Leroy Maines.

The three friends surrounded Monk who was quickly untied and now rested peacefully in the arms of his wife.

Everything they had just seen, everything they had experienced was more than words could possibly express, and so they just sat still and quietly, relishing the moment and holding on to that which they had come so close to losing

In his minds eye, Adrian knew what Michael meant by the big picture. THIS was the big picture. Being with his wife, being with his friends, living out this unique life – regardless which curveballs were hurtled towards it. He knew that he would soon have to see Jack and confront him about the bill. But for now, he was safe and content where he most wanted to be, and all was … almost….well.


	11. Chapter 11

"You wanna talk about it?" Natalie quietly asked Adrian as he laid his head on her shoulder in their bed in the hotel in Aurora, Colorado.

He had barely said a word since the capture of Frank Lasalle and Leroy Maines, not even to complain that they were lying upon the used bedding supplied by the hotel and not new bedding right out of the wrapper from a store. Instead, he had busied himself by repeatedly tracing the contours of Natalie's wrists and hands, trying to steady a mind that was still reeling from the events of the last forty-eight hours.

Now that she had broken the silence, he stopped tracing and finally spoke. "Yeah... What _was_ that? Did you see how the bullet just stopped in mid air?" he said, making a flying movement with his hands followed by a stop motion.

Natalie looked down towards him. "I saw. And honestly, I don't know what to make of it. But, that's not what I'm talking about." She said, turning towards him so that he would be forced to look at her. "Adrian, when you took off like that, you scared us to death. There were witnesses that said, basically, you were disoriented and walking around in a daze. You didn't call…" she said.

"I didn't remember." He replied. "I…I mean, I remembered some things. I remembered you. I remember our being married. But I couldn't remember things like names…even my own…or other details right up until we arrived in Aurora."

"So, you really did have some sort of amnesia? Sharona told me that this was a possibility, something about it happening with some people when the brain just goes on tilt by receiving some sort of traumatic news." She said.

"Like the news that your father isn't the person you were always told he was? And that you aren't who you thought you were?" Monk replied.

Natalie rolled over and sat up.

"Adrian. You know who you are. Who is or is not your biological father does not change that. You're a detective. You're a wonderful husband. You're a father. You're a brother." She said.

"HALF…brother." He said, drawing out the f in half. "And Jack Jr., well he's not even kin at all."

"You don't know that." Natalie said.

"Natalie, the man had a vasectomy a year before I was born." He replied.

"Vasectomies can and do fail." She responded.

"Yeah…what? One in a million times?" he asked.

"It's not common. But I'm looking at a one in a billion man, so who's counting?" she said.

He lowered his eyes and looked at his own hands.

"Adrian. You've always colored outside the lines." She said.

"I would _never _color outside the lines." He responded.

"It's an expression." She said. "Maybe poorly chosen for the man I'm speaking to, but just roll with it. There are bigger issues at hand."

"Like who's the daddy?" He scrunched up his face and sat up. "Natalie! My life has become an episode of Maury Povich!"

She bit her lip to avoid laughing at that one. "How…do you know who…"

"Maury Povich is?" he tilted his head. "I can be aware of popular culture too."

She grinned a disbelieving grin. "Preacher mentioned him, didn't he?"

He looked up at her, aggravated that she had seen through his attempt to be culturally relevant. "Yes!...But that's beside the point. Natalie, you say I know who I am. Yes, factually speaking I'm a detective, a husband, a father, a friend, a brother. But who _am _I?

I was eight years old when da…Jack Monk left our house. Up until that point, I idolized the man. Looking back, there are plenty of reasons that I shouldn't have, but in some ways he wasn't a bad father. He read to us, he took me to a football game, he played games with us…"

"He played a lot of head games too. Telling you that the football players in the huddle were talking about you? Exposing you to things that you were clearly afraid of?" She said.

"And the ultimate head game of all, leaving an eight year old boy to be the sole caretaker of his mother and older brother, wondering what he had done to drive his father away. For _years_ I blamed myself. Ambrose blamed himself. Now, I have to realize…it really was me!" he said.

"You don't know that." She replied.

"Maybe he just got tired of pretending. That honestly explains a lot about the dynamic between my parents. And…my _mother_. What does this say about her?" he asked.

"Adrian, I'm going to repeat it. Vasectomies are not always successful. There is a chance…"

"Million to one." He replied.

She shook her head. "I don't know what the statistics are. But right now I see you're making two mistakes. You're assuming first that biology alone is what determines whether someone is a father or not. There are millions of kids out there today with biological fathers who simply provided the _biology_ required to make a baby. They are no more fathers than the man in the moon, and their biological kids suffer for that. Then there are fathers, who though they aren't connected by biology, nevertheless care for and love and provide for and guide and direct kids lives in real and tangible ways that make all the difference in the world. And while it's truth that Jack Monk fits into neither of those categories, I would say that, at least for a while, he tried."

"Until he stopped trying." Adrian replied.

"Which we know was inexcusable. You were just an eight year old boy. Regardless what went on, he owed you more. Still, withhold from judging him too harshly." she said.

"Withhold judging him? He lied to me. They all lied to me." Adrian answered bitterly.

"Adrian, there is a chance that what you are thinking is not right. You've violated one of the key tenets of investigative work. You've drawn a conclusion without all of the evidence before you."

"Natalie! I have a hospital bill for a vasectomy, and a father who suddenly left town and stopped being a father to me when I was eight. What more evidence do I need?" he asked.

"DNA." She replied. "I don't know what you think you're going to say to Jack when you get to Midland to see him. But, I would caution you to measure your words carefully. He's not getting any younger, and…if he is your real father…you don't want to say something you'll regret forever. So, if you have angry words to speak, you might as well get them out now."

"I have…I have no words. Only questions." He replied.

"Okay. Questions. Questions are healthy. Questions are something we can run with…and a DNA kit." She said.

He shook his head in frustration. "Where are we going to get a DNA kit?"

"We can order them online, or if you don't mind waiting, the stores sell them now. All you have to do is spit in a tube." She said.

"I…I don't think so." He replied.

"Adrian, it's either that or draw blood." She said.

"I don't want to do either!" he said, his voice rising in anger.

"Fine! Then you can sit here and sulk and make your life miserable by not knowing, and you can feel sorry for yourself based solely on whatever imagination your mind wants to torment you over this hour." she said.

"That's an option." he reasoned.

"No! That is not an option. We can't live that way. Jack is now, what…80?" she said.

"He'll be 80 next year." Adrian replied.

"Even if he lives to be 100, the time to do this is quickly passing. You have questions. You have the ability to get answers to those questions. And, I know my husband. There is _no way_ you're going to be able to rest or have peace at all without the answer to those questions. Let's swing by the store tomorrow and pick up two DNA kits - one for you and one for Jack. It will either tell you what you are afraid of knowing or it will tell you what you always believed to be true – but you'll know." She replied.

He raised his hand to his forehead and sat up quietly in bed.

She crawled up beside him, wrapping her arms around his shoulders from behind and laying her cheek against his neck.

"And regardless what the test has to say, you're always going to be the best husband, lover, friend, detective, and man I've ever known." She said as he turned his head and looked her in the eyes, then rested his head against hers.

"Lover?" he asked, sheepishly.

She rolled her eyes and then moved in for a soft lingering kiss.


	12. Chapter 12

The drive from Aurora to Midland seemed as if it took forever, particularly when the Monks left the beautiful terrain of the Colorado Rockies and the land flattened out in New Mexico and Northern, Texas.

As a result of his safe recovery, Leland and Randy had departed to return to their jobs; however, Leland was sure to let them know that if they needed him for anything whatsoever, he would be there in a flash. All they needed to do was call.

So now it was just Adrian and Natalie, riding along side by side in a rental car, talking and catching up outside of the typical chaos that surrounded their lives. It was a comfortable feeling, just Adrian and his assistant, sitting in the vehicle talking and watching the world through two different but united sets of eyes. In a way, it helped them to reconnect in a way that they hadn't been able to do with the kids around, and it showed them that no matter what the circumstance they found themselves in, they had not lost sight of each other.

Having given a statement to local police, Adrian agreed to return when needed for the trial of "the Lasalle Gang" as Randy called them, two of whom were safely locked up in a Federal prison and the third who was still on the loose but being actively pursued over a nine state radius. The fact that Paulie Lasalle was still at large made Natalie a little uneasy, but she knew there was nothing much she could do about it, so she chose to focus on the moment at hand and on being a support to Adrian no matter how this trip turned out.

Along the way they stopped at a Walmart and purchased two DNA kits as she had suggested. It was the kind of kit that one would send to a company which specializes in family history DNA, though Adrian was interested in any genetic anomalies that there might be running through his veins, so they went with the company that also provided medical results. He filled out his portion of the information and provided the saliva sample as required, then they dropped it in the mail somewhere near Amarillo.

* * *

They pulled up to Jack Monk's little ranch at around 5:35 PM on a warm and clear Texas day. Adrian had heard his father speak of the ranch, but he never pictured it quite in this setting. The land was flat with a relatively sparse amount of vegetation and a view where you could see forever. His home sat back off the road on his modest plot of 5 acres. It was surrounded by a satisfying ten trees, five on each side of his yard, and had a small garden in the back. Built in the 1980s, it had been his home for some time, but only now in semi-retirement was he truly getting to enjoy it.

* * *

As Natalie parked the car, she observed the pensive expression on Adrian's face as he looked at the front door. Taking his hand, she reminded him that he was not alone in all of this and that no matter what happened, he still had his family in herself, Ambrose, Lee and Abby and they all loved him very much. He squeezed her hand just slightly and then exited the vehicle, walking in a resolute manner to the front door, and using his sleeve to ring the doorbell.

They hadn't called ahead, and he was unsure of how Jack would take them just showing up. But frankly, he needed the time to himself, to compose himself and gather his thoughts on what looked like it was going to be a very emotional meeting. As he heard the front door unlock, he stood straight and tall expecting to see an aging version of the man he knew, but was surprised when another man, about thirty five years old, opened the door.

"Yes, may I help you?" the man asked.

Adrian looked confused for a moment and then took a step backwards. Picking up on his discomfort, Natalie stepped forward and spoke for the two of them.

"Hi. We're here to see Jack Monk. Is he around?" she asked.

"He is. Who may I say is here?" the young man said.

"Please tell him that his…"Natalie began.

"Adrian. Adrian Monk and my wife Natalie. Please tell him that we are here." Adrian interrupted.

"Adrian? _THE _Adrian?! The hot shot detective turned FBI Director son of his? What a surprise. Jack never stops talking about you! He's going to be so surprised." the man said, opening the door and inviting them in.

"Follow me. I'm Kyle. Kyle Patton. My mom and Jack are…you know…" he said.

Adrian's brows furrowed as he twitched his neck and walked behind Kyle with Natalie in tow.

"Hey Jack" Patton said. "You have a visitor."

Jack was seated on an old upholstered couch with a pattern that was popular in the late 1970s next to an attractive and shapely red headed woman who appeared to be a couple of years younger than Adrian and who reminded him somewhat of a mid-sixties era Rita Hayworth.

Jack turned around in his seat and his jaw dropped open.

"Adrian! Is that my son, Adrian?"

He slowly got up off of the couch and made his way over to Monk, putting out his hand for Adrian to shake. Adrian looked at his hand and then at his face trying to will himself to not let him know about all of the turmoil that was boiling inside. He was successful for now, for Jack pulled him in for a hug and then went over to hug his daughter-in-law and give her a kiss on the cheek.

Stepping back, he exclaimed "I am so surprised! Why didn't you call? And…" he looked behind them. "Where are those two grandbabies of mine?"

Adrian remained quiet, allowing Natalie to do much of the talking. "Lee and Abby are with my parents right now in California."

"Oh? So…you came alone? Ambrose! Is it Ambrose? What has happened to my son?" he asked.

"Ambrose is fine." Adrian said. "We came to see you."

Jack looked at Adrian in the eyes, trying to figure out what emotion he was exuding. "You look troubled, boy. What's wrong?" he asked.

"I'm okay. I'm just tired." Adrian lied.

"But of course you are." Jack said, leading him into the living room. "Adrian, Natalie come in here and meet my…friend, JoAnn. JoAnn Frazier, I would like for you to meet my son, Adrian Monk."

JoAnn stood and stuck out her hand to Adrian and Natalie, giving them both the kind of smile that is beautiful but doesn't go all the way up to the eyes.

"Why Adrian! I've heard so much about you! I'm so glad you finally made it to our house." She said.

Adrian twitched. "Our?" he asked.

Jack shuffled slightly and then came forward. "I guess there is no reason to keep it a secret. Adrian, JoAnn and I are engaged to be married." He said, putting his arm around JoAnn. "JoAnn is going to be your step-mother."


	13. Chapter 13

"What in the world was that?!" Adrian said in a manner far too loud for Natalie's liking ,as the Monks got settled in Jack Monk's guest bedroom.

"Shhhhh! Adrian, they're going to hear you!" she said. "Keep your voice down!"

"I don't much care if they do, Natalie…what was that? The woman's name is Frazier and her son is named Patton? That means Jack is going to be at least her _third_ husband?!" he said.

"I've had three husbands." Natalie countered with a seriousness that let Adrian know that he had better choose his next words carefully.

He sighed. "But you're different." He said, softly.

"How so? You don't know JoAnn, and you haven't even given her a chance. She _may_ be very nice." She said.

"Or she may have poisoned her other two husbands or left them and taken them for everything they were worth. Plus, Natalie! Did you see her? She's younger than me!" He said.

"And, I'm younger than you." She said.

"Not by _that _much!" he replied.

'Alright. If you are going to act like this, we can't discuss it." She responded.

"Act like what?" he asked. "I'm only…"

"You're only throwing a temper tantrum because you got surprised by your father's news." She replied.

"Maybe so, but if you haven't noticed, I'm a little shell-shocked by my fath…by Jack's news. Cut me some slack." He argued.

She paused and just looked at him. Here he was, half man/half child doing what he did when life got too stressful. She didn't know whether to try to reason with him or give him a time out. So, she decided instead to try to reduce the tension in the room and talk to him softly as a rational human being.

"Adrian, I know you are going through a tremendous amount of confusion, anger, hurt, …you name it, right now. We talked about this." She said.

"We didn't talk about _THIS!_" he responded.

"No. We didn't. But stop and take a deep breath." She said.

"Is this some yoga thing?" he asked.

"No. This is me, Natalie, trying to get you, Adrian, to settle the heck down! Listen. So what if Jack has a girlfriend?" she said.

"Fiancé!" he answered.

"Fiancé. So what if she's been married before? How does this really affect you?" she asked.

"Natalie, I can't explain it. There's something about her that I don't like." He replied.

"You just met her. You know nothing about the woman. What don't you like about her?" she asked.

"I just said I can't explain it, so try to keep up." He said.

Natalie folded her arms and clenched her jaw, glaring at him with a look that could melt steel. "Watch it, Monk!"

He looked up at her, trying to hold his ground but utterly withered when he saw her glare.

"I'm sorry." He said. "It's just..it's like this… sometimes, I don't deal with change very well."

"Sometimes?" she asked.

He looked at her from the tops of his eyes and said slowly "Okay, hardly ever. But…you have to admit I've been better. I mean, look at all of the change we have been through in the past five to ten years. I think I'm in pretty good shape, considering the shape I'm in." he said.

"You've done very well." She said softly. "But you can't let up now. We don't want to backtrack."

He shook his head in agreement.

"Adrian, please don't take my arguing with you right now as me disbelieving you. I trust your hunches about people. They are seldom wrong." She said.

"Seldom?" he grinned.

She laughed and caressed his sleeve. "I'm just concerned you are getting derailed. We're here for YOU.

Jack spells his first name with a D for disfunction. Try to not get wrapped up in his circus. I don't want to see you hurt any more than you already have been."

Adrian pondered her words for several moments. "I will try."

"Great. You'll thank me later."She winked, patting his shoulder. "On that subject, how do you suppose we're going to get a chance to talk with Jack?"

"It depends on how long the Bobsy twins hang around." He replied. "It sounds like they have made Jack's house their home."

"Which will make it harder to get the privacy you need to discuss this. I think it needs to be just you and Jack alone, don't you?" she asked.

"You don't think you should be there?" he asked.

"No. Not this time. This is going to be something really hard for your … for Jack to hear. I'm sure he thought it would never come out. I think we've done enough prep on your end that you'll be able to hold it together. I don't want to be in the middle of it though and perhaps muddy things." She replied.

"How would you do that?" Adrian asked.

"I don't know. I know when there is something that I need to talk about that involves me and another person, I don't feel as free to be open and honest if there is a third party around. But…I mean, if you really wanted me to go…" she suggested.

Adrian shook his head. "No, you're right. This conversation is going to have to be candid and honest if it is anything. I…All I want is the truth. Why did they never tell me? Why lie to me all of these years and let me believe I'm someone I'm not?" he said.

Just then, a knock came on the door. It was Jack. Poking his head in the room, he said "I'll bet you two are hungry after driving all day. Come join us in the dining room. JoAnn made us some Texas longhorn steaks with potatoes, and green beans. The beans are from my garden!"

"Okay, Jack. We'll be right there." Natalie said, as she reached out and held Adrian's hand.

Jack shut the bedroom door and Natalie looked up at Adrian. "Never let them see you sweat."

His eyes went from relaxed to sudden panic. "Am I sweating?! Do you think I need to take a shower before we eat?"

"You're fine Adrian. You look great." She said, wrapping her arms around his neck and leaning in and nibbling on his ear. She stepped back and quickly raised and lowered her eyebrows at him "Follow me!"

Like an automaton, he dropped his arms to his side and followed her command, now being as putty in her hands.

* * *

Jack and JoAnn each helped set the table, giving Adrian and Natalie seats at Jack's right hand while JoAnn and Kyle sat at his left.

With place settings that Adrian remembered belonging to his grandmother Monk from his childhood, the two couples and Kyle attempted to make small talk about anything but their own lives at first. Having discussed the hot Texas weather and where the Texas Rangers stood in the American League West, Adrian had about enough of the trivial and was chomping at the bit to launch into some serious discussion.

"So, JoAnn. Where did you and Jack meet?" he asked.

It hadn't escaped Jack's notice that Adrian was calling him Jack and not Dad, but he knew that eventually whatever was disturbing him so would come to the fore, so he said nothing.

"Your father and I met on the road. I was working in my late husband Edgar's hardware store and Jack came in looking for some parts for his rig." She said.

"Your husband was Edgar Frazier?" asked Natalie. "The big retail king?"

"Yes." JoAnn said. "We were married for eight years."

Adrian looked at her. "I see. And, where did you meet him?"

"I met him while I was a flight attendant. I was working the Concorde with Air France, and Edgar was on a business trip. He began chatting with me, and next thing you know we were dating. It was three months between when we met and married." She said.

"And he died in late 2015?" Adrian asked.

"Yes." She replied.

"Under mysterious circumstances." He added.

"If by mysterious, you mean that someone tampered with his brake line, yes. The police still haven't solved his death." She said.

"That's awful." Natalie said. "What about your life before Edgar?"

"Well…I feel like we're only talking about me…but, before Edgar I was a flight attendant for twelve years, and before that I worked in Vegas for eight."

"Doing what?" Adrian asked.

"I was a show girl! Did the nine o'clock show for the Vista Hotel for ten years, and before then, I was just a small town single mother living near Portland, trying to raise my son. His father, Bruce Patton, went into the army shortly after Kyle was born. He left me for a woman that was part of his platoon." She said. "But truly…that is enough about me. Natalie. I understand you're a Davenport? What was it like growing up in such a prominent family?"

Natalie wiped her mouth with her napkin. "It was okay. I was the typical rebellious teen, not really wanting anything to do with my parent's business or social life. So, I was a bit of a wild child. We had a lot of tension. I got out of the house young, married young, had my daughter Julie. My husband, Mitch, was shot down over Kosovo and later killed behind enemy lines."

"That's bad." Said Kyle.

"It was one of the most horrible things I ever faced. But, Julie and I made it through. I took several jobs along the way, including tending bar." She said.

"Why wouldn't you just live off of your parent's wealth?" Kyle asked.

"That's not Natalie." Adrian replied. "That's not how she rolls."

Natalie grinned at Adrian's attempt to speak modern lingo. It was appropriate, but usually came out sounding somewhat foreign when he spoke the words.

"Adrian is right. I didn't want anything to do with my parent's money. Daddy had inherited what he had and lived by the rules of high society. I wanted to make my own rules. So, it was a struggle…but I did. When Julie was eleven, I met Adrian and began working for him." She said.

"And you fell in love?" asked JoAnn.

Natalie smiled and looked over at him. "Eventually. I knew that he was a special kind of man, during those first days,when he saved my daughter's pet fish Henry rather than going after a criminal who was right within his grasp. But, I wanted to take my time to get to know him, since Adrian is not the easiest person to get close to."

"I'm not." Adrian agreed.

"Yes, but once you're _in_, he's the most loyal, protective, loving man you could know. Sometimes he doesn't show it exactly as you would want or expect." She explained.

"She means that sometimes I'm a bit selfish." He replied.

She bobbed her head back and forth. "Yeah, sometimes, you can be. But, when push comes to shove, I know he would move through Hell or high water to be there for me or our children."

"When did you know you loved him?" asked JoAnn.

"Oh wow!" she said, smiling. "I knew I was attracted to him. He was handsome. Mysterious. And…in some ways, unreachable."

"I was shut down because my wife Trudy had been murdered." He said.

"Jack told me about that. How tragic. You mourned for twelve years over her?" JoAnn said.

"Longer than that. I still mourn over her, but not the same way. I…with Natalie, I feel I can live again. She's changed my perspective on life. I can be happy again. I look back at my life with Trudy, and while it ended tragically, I prefer now to focus on the good things in our lives and am happy that she is at peace." He said.

"Yeah. That's how I feel about Edgar." she said nonchalantly. "Go on about when you first discovered you loved him, Natalie…" JoAnn replied.

"Oh, I think I knew pretty early on, but I wouldn't admit it to myself. I worked with him closely, every day. I watched him. I saw his heart. I knew how deeply he loved his wife Trudy, and was touched by that unswerving devotion. I watched as he interacted with my Julie, and I knew that this was a good man. I watched as he played with a little boy named Tommy that he was considering adopting, and I saw how he unselfishly gave him up so that Tommy could have a better life. Complex, and dark and brooding and yet gentle, and sweet, and so capable of a self-less kind of love that was willing to put aside every fear and insecurity, and selfish whim when it counted, even risk his own life for those he cared for. My husband is a wonderful, beautiful enigma." She said, holding his hand. "But…if you ask me when was the moment was that I knew…it's when I thought I lost him. When his friend Leland and he had to fake his death, and I thought he was gone. Part of my heart just wanted to die with him." She began to tear up. "As I packed his things, I felt such a great loss, and I wished I had told him all of the things I was then feeling…"

"I would have freaked." He replied.

"Yeah. At that time, you probably would have, so I had to play it cool. But, I knew right then and there that I loved you." She responded. "Of course, he still loved Trudy and was emotionally unavailable. So, I had to be the unselfish one and just be able to be happy that I was in his life at all. That wasn't easy."

"And, time came and went and you finally got together." Kyle said.

"There was a lot more that happened in between, but, more or less…that's right. Adrian and I were meant to be together." She said.

"We were." He smiled. "Natalie gave me my life back, and I love her more than you could ever imagine. More than I could have imagined."

* * *

After cleaning up from Dinner, Adrian and Natalie excused themselves to go back to their room and rest up from the day's travel.

"I think that went very well." She said.

"Yes. I agree. But, there's something that is not right." He replied.

"What is it?" Natalie said.

"She's lying. She lied about her past with Edgar Frazier. She said she met him while working the Concorde. The Concorde went out of service four years before they married. JoAnn Frazier is not who she is claiming to be, and I'm afraid that Jack has gotten himself into some real trouble." He responded.

"What are you going to do?" she asked.

"I don't know yet. But, regardless how things turn out between me and him, I have to make sure things are set right before we leave here." he replied, looking off to the side in a manner that told Natalie that his mental wheels were spinning and that she needed to buckle her seat belt because things were about to get interesting.


	14. Chapter 14

Early the next morning, Adrian and Natalie were awakened by the sound of a buzz saw cutting through lumber and a hammer pounding nails. They both rolled over at the same time and looked towards the back window, then towards each other.

"What on earth is that? And what time is it?" Natalie asked.

Adrian reached over for the alarm clock and discovered that it was 7:30 AM local time, just after the crack of dawn in Midland.

"Good grief! Find out what is going on." Natalie said, pushing Adrian to get out of bed.

Adrian sat up and put on his slippers, and then stood, grabbing his robe and stumbled sleepily towards the back window. He squinted, trying to get his sleep saturated eyes to focus.

"Looks like they are building…another building?" he observed.

"What kind of building?" she asked.

He blinked hard and tried to estimate what size the building would be by the size of its frame. "It almost looks like a second house. Like a small cottage."

"Maybe they are building a place for Kyle to live in?" she speculated.

He turned away from the window. "I hope they are using Frazier money to do it."

"Does that worry you?" she asked.

"Why would I worry about it?" he asked.

"I don't know. Tapping into your inheritance?" she replied.

"I didn't even consider it. No. I'm not worried about that. I just hate to see Jack ripped off." He replied.

"You really think JoAnn is up to no good." She stated.

"Yeah. I am 98.5% sure of it." He replied.

"Then call Leland." She suggested.

"For what?" he asked.

"Have him run her record. See if she has anything on the books to go on." She replied.

Adrian thought. "Good idea. I'll call him now."

"Wait!" she said. "What time is it, California time?"

He stopped and thought for a moment. "You're right. It's 5:30 in the morning. I should wait fifteen minutes or so."

"Concentrate on the 'or so'. Leland just had to drive back from Colorado and is probably fast asleep. I say call him about ten our time. At least that gives him a chance to get into the office." She said.

"Okay. I'll take that opportunity to catch a shower, then maybe we can strategize on how I'm going to get Jack alone so we can talk." He replied.

"Don't stay in there too long." She said smiling. "I may have to come in and get you."

Adrian turned to her, "Natalie Jane! Focus!" causing her to giggle and lay back down for a few more minutes sleep.

* * *

At ten o'clock on the nose, she was awakened again. This time by Adrian calling Leland from her cell phone.

"Hey Leland. It's me. Adrian. Monk." He said.

_"Yes, Adrian. I know it's you. Are you feeling better?" _ he asked.

"Yes. Thank you. Listen, I don't have a lot of time. I have a name I need you to run for me. It's important." He replied.

_"Uh…okay. Shoot."_ Leland responded.

"JoAnn Frazier. Also known as JoAnn Patton. Age, I'd say, mid 50s. Check around Portland, Las Vegas, and I guess around here…Midland, Texas."

_"Okay. Got it. What's this about?" _Leland asked.

"She's slated to be Jack Monk's next wife." Adrian responded. "Something about her. I have a bad feeling."

_"That's enough for me. Have you gotten to talk with Jack yet?"_ he asked.

"No. Not yet." Adrian replied. "Soon."

Hanging up, he turned around and saw Natalie staring at him. She took his breath away in her silk nightgown and sleep-tossled blonde locks. Even without makeup, she was stunning, so much so that the found himself unable to say a word and just stared back.

"What?" she asked.

He blinked. "Oh…I'm sorry. I kinda zoned out on you."

"Over what?" she asked.

"Over how beautiful you are." He responded.

She blushed and changed the subject. "Thank you…Was that Leland on the phone?"

"Yes. I have him running a check on her." he responded.

"Good. How come you didn't wake me up when you got out of the shower?" she asked.

"I couldn't. You looked so peaceful. Figured I'd put you through enough on this trip and you needed to get your rest." He replied.

"I would have gotten up." She said.

"That's okay. You're up now, so let's talk. How are we going to get alone with Jack?" he asked.

"Maybe I can take her shopping or something this afternoon." she suggested.

"Can you keep her a while?" he asked.

"If I have your credit card, I can!" she said, teasing.

"Funny. You handle all the money now anyway. Remember, I'm not good with money." He whined.

"I'm just teasing. But yes, to answer your question, I can keep her busy. Maybe I can suggest a trip into Dallas, Fort Worth." She replied.

"No, I want you to be close in case I have to get you." He responded.

"Or I have to get you?" She replied. "I know you, Adrian. Don't worry. You can handle this."

* * *

That afternoon, Natalie took JoAnn into town for a Spa experience, just for the women while Kyle was out gallivanting with friends, giving Adrian his moment of solitude with Jack that he needed. The only problem was, now that he had it, how exactly was he going to broach the subject? Complicating matters was the fact that Jack was in such a great mood at being able to spend time alone with Adrian that he didn't have the heart to just blurt out what was bothering him. So, he spent a full two hours just catching up with what had gone on since the last time they had seen each other and helping Jack move lumber around in the back yard.

"What are you doing here?" Adrian asked.

"It's for JoAnn." Jack responded. "She has a little side business where she sells crafts and stuff on the internet. I'm making her a workshop of sorts."

"A workshop?" Adrian asked.

"Yes. She has some very particular tastes in things and I like to keep her happy." Jack responded.

"I see. What do you really know about this woman?" he asked.

"What do you mean?" Jack asked, sitting down on a stack of wood and brushing some sweat off of his forehead.

"Just what I said. Who is she? What has she been into? How many times has she _really_ been married? How did her last husband really die? Do you know for example that she didn't do it?" Adrian asked.

"JoAnn? A killer? Adrian, you've always been too suspicious for your own good." Jack responded.

"Jack, I am just concerned for your welfare. This is all so sudden." He replied.

Jack cocked his head towards Adrian. "Why are you calling me Jack again?"

"Don't change the subject. What do you know about her?" Adrian responded, now trying to delay his own conversation to a point where he felt things were sufficiently calm that they could talk.

"I know she was born in 1960 in Cleveland, Ohio. She grew up near Portland, Oregon and got married to Kyle's no good dad when she was young. He abandoned the family and to make money, she took a job as a show girl. The rest you already heard. I also know that she makes your old man feel good…wanted, and I haven't felt that way in a long time."

"Well, I think before you go too far, you should at least have her checked out." Adrian responded.

"I wouldn't dare! Relationships are about trust. How would Natalie feel if you checked up on her?" he replied angrily.

"I don't have to check up on Natalie. I have known her for many years. We're also not talking about Natalie. We're talking about you." Adrian answered.

"Adrian, this is my business. Not yours. I didn't tell you who to marry." He responded.

"You weren't there." Adrian replied.

"And exactly, _why_ are you here?" Jack barked. "I've lived here for thirty years and this is the first I've seen you."

"I didn't know where you were for almost twenty of those years." Adrian said.

"But you could have found me. You're the smartest man I've ever met. You could have looked." Jack replied. "Why didn't you?"

Adrian bit the inside of his jaw. He had to remember what Natalie said and avoid getting emotional.

Taking a deep breath, he said in a low measured tone- "I didn't think you wanted to see me. You left. I didn't. It was up to you to do the finding."

Jack pressed his lips together and ran his hand over his jaw.

"You're right. It wasn't up to you. I was wrong. But, I thought that we dealt with this before. I thought we were good. What changed?" he asked.

.

Adrian's throat tightened and his heart began to beat a little harder. He closed his eyes, and took a deep breath trying to steady himself, knowing that the next few moments could be very fateful.

"Ambrose is shutting down the house." Adrian said. "He's moving."

"Ambrose?! Really? Now there's some news!" Jack mused.

"Natalie and I were helping him to clean out the house and pack… the girls were working downstairs and Ambrose and I took your old study." He replied.

"Oh yeah? It's about time that old room got cleaned out." Jack responded.

"Jack. I…I found your little lockbox. And, we found the key to it." Adrian replied.

Jack furrowed his eyebrows. "What…lockbox?"

"The one you kept special papers in. I…Jack, I found a receipt in there dated September 1958." he answered.

"A receipt?" Jack asked.

"Yes. It had your name on it. It was for male sterilization." Adrian said softly.

Jack was silent, his brows furrowing even more, as he scratched his jaw, then ran his hand through his mid-length grey hair.

"Jack. I was born in October 1959." Adrian noted.

Jack stayed silent for what seemed like an eternity, and then looked up at Adrian. "You think that you're not my son. That's what this is about?"

"Jack, the math doesn't work out." he replied.

.

Jack jumped up from the wood and walked a few steps.

"You think you're not my son?! I don't believe this! Adrian thinks he's not my child!" Jack said, pacing.

"Well, what am I supposed to think? It was in your stuff! It has your name on it. What else could it be?" he asked.

"Did you ask that to yourself before you came down here?" Jack asked.

"Now you're stalling. What else could it be?" Adrian said.

Jack stopped. "It's not what you think it is."

"It's not? Then what? Persuade me!" Adrian said.

Jack walked a few paces and turned his back towards Adrian. Looking scantly over his shoulder he told him, "It was for the dog."

Adrian stood still and said incredulously, "The dog."

"Yeah. The dog. We had the dog neutered. It was a vet bill."

Adrian blinked several times and shook his head. "You saved a vet bill from 1958 in your special lock box to…what? Commemorate the dog's neutering?"

Jack turned and looked at him. "Have them do _that_ to you! It was a momentous event!"

Adrian raised his hand up to his forehead. "Jack. I saw the bill. It said under patient name – Jack Monk!"

"Yes. That's what we named him." Jack responded.

"You're telling me you named the dog Jack?" Adrian replied.

"Yes." Jack responded.

"After yourself?" Adrian asked.

"Yes. That's right. And the dog got neutered." Jack said.

.

Adrian shut his eyes. "You know what? I grew up in that household and never _once_, not one single time have I ever heard of a dog named Jack at any point in the Monk family history. Never. And you're expecting me to believe that you had a dog named Jack the year before I was born, and that you had him neutered, and saved the receipt to mark the event…Jack, I can believe the fortune cookie story before I could buy into this one."

"What are you implying?" Jack asked.

"That you're lying! You're lying to me Jack! You've lied to me my entire life, that is whatever parts of my life you actually decided to grace with your presence." Adrian said.

"Adrian. I never lied to you." Jack responded. "I am your father. I wish you would believe me, son."

.

Adrian ran both hands through his hair as anger started to rise within him. _Keep calm. Keep your cool._ He told himself. He took a deep breath and started to count to ten like Natalie had suggested, but grew too impatient at number six.

"I'm sorry. I can't." he said flatly.

"Well, it's the truth." Jack responded.

"Prove it." Adrian said forcefully.

"Prove it? How?!" Jack asked.

.

Adrian left Jack's side and marched into the house, returning in about thirty seconds with the DNA kit.

"I need you to take this test." Adrian replied.

"What?!" Jack responded, angrily. "What test?"

"It's a DNA kit. I need you to take it. If that bill wasn't for you then you should have nothing to fear by taking this test." He said.

"I'm not taking any #$ test! What are you trying to do, insult me?!" Jack growled.

"No! I'm trying to find out the truth. Dad…Jack…whoever you are….I need to know. I've had an awful time since I ran into that blasted piece of paper. I wish I had never seen it. But, what has been seen can not be unseen. I have to know….Please…The test is very easy. All you have to do is spit in the tube, seal it and mail it in. It's that easy…" Adrian explained.

Jack stood silently, looking towards the ground.

"Please. For me." Adrian pleaded.

Jack looked him in the eyes. "I'm sorry, son. I can't." he said, walking back into the house and setting the kit down in the window sill just outside the back door.

* * *

Adrian stood alone for several minutes, trying to think. His mind had no answers. He was mentally exhausted, angry, frustrated, sad, and now had a splitting headache. He walked a couple of paces and kicked at some dust in the yard, then walked up on to the porch, grabbing the kit from the window, and walked inside and to his room. Laying down in his bed, he stared at the ceiling until he fell asleep. The day hadn't gone as he had imagined, but he wasn't about to give up.


	15. Chapter 15

"Ah… Ramon sure knows how to work the kinks out, doesn't he, Natalie? I feel so relaxed." JoAnn said as Natalie paid for their services.

"Ramon did a good job." She responded, signing on the dotted line and folding the receipt, placing it in her purse.

The day had gone fairly well, particularly in terms of fact gathering…or at least information gathering. Whether or not they were facts, Natalie had her doubts. Other than a period of about five minutes where she probed for information on Adrian from Natalie, conversation was almost completely about Joann, her likes and dislikes, and her supposed life prior to Jack. She repeated information that they had already discussed at the dinner table, however Natalie was keen to notice that there were a few glaring inconsistencies. For instance, in reference to raising her son alone, she told Natalie that they were living somewhere near Seattle instead of Portland. She also gave her two different names for what was supposed to be her 'only' sister from Toledo, all within a three hour span. All that aside, Natalie could see what attracted Jack to her. She was a beautiful and cheerful woman who knew how to pour on the charm and had every man that they ran into following after her like a little lap dog the entire afternoon.

As they left the spa, JoAnn suggested that the should go to a nice little boutique across town to do some real damage to their men's credit cards. Natalie wasn't sure whether she should give Adrian more time or not. She hadn't heard from him, so she assumed that perhaps they were still talking and agreed to one more stop, and JoAnn talked her ear off all the way out the door.

Once they had left the building, their masseuse, Ramon, made his way into the main office to make a phone call. He thumbed through his contacts and allowed the phone to autodial the number. After about five rings, the recipient picked up on the other end.

_"Yo"_ the man said.

"Hey Paulie! How ya doin? You still hangin low?" Ramon asked.

_"Ramon. What the #$ do you think? I'm being looked for across have the US. What do you want? It'd better be good."_ Paulie replied.

"Yeah, yeah, yeah. I know. I thought you would want to know this. That guy that is supposed to be a key witness in your case, his name is Adrian Monk, right?" he asked.

_"Yeah. What about him?" _ Paulie asked.

"Well, you'd never guess who just stopped into the shop today…" he answered.

_"Monk?"_ asked Paulie.

"No. Not him. His Mrs. And, I think I know where they might be staying. The woman with her signed up for our newsletter, and she lives right here in Midland. I'll jot down the address and send it to you in a couple of minutes. Am I your favorite cousin or am I your favorite cousin?" Ramon asked.

_"If you have what you say you have, you may make it up to adopted brother. I gotta lesson to teach that guy, and by the end of it, he won't be testifying against nobody." _Paulie responded menacingly.

* * *

That evening, dinner was tense. Jack and Adrian hardly spoke a word to one another and JoAnn blathered on and on about their trip, including mundane details that nobody in the room really cared about. When it was over, Adrian went out on the back porch with Natalie while Jack and JoAnn sat and watched their favorite reality show, and Kyle went to go run with some friends of his for a night on the town.

"Well, how did it go?" Natalie asked, as Adrian sat solemnly, swirling ice around in a glass of tea.

"Terrible." He replied.

"What happened?" she asked.

"He denied it. Lied to me again. Said the receipt was for the dog." He replied.

"The dog? Are you kidding me?" she responded. "He owes you better than that. Did he at least agree to take the DNA test?"

"No. Threw it back in my face." He replied. "But, I'm not giving up. I'm not going home until I get some answers." He said.

Natalie looked down at the ground, "Well, I'm not letting you stay here alone." She said.

Adrian looked up at her, "If this drags on too long, say, more than another day or so, I think we should send for the babies."

"You would do that?" she asked.

"Of course. They are my family. You, Lee and Abby. You're my reason for living. Too much other nastiness to deal with in this world to make you tired and worn out and disgusted with life. But you guys, you've given the living back to my life – so, wherever we go, we go together." He replied.

She smiled. "I'm happy that you can smile again. For a long time that was in doubt."

"It hasn't been an easy road. That's for sure. When's the last time you talked with your parents? How are the kids doing?" he asked.

"Mom and Dad are loving their time with them. They're doing great, though I think Abby is cutting another tooth." She replied.

"Oh boy." He responded.

"Yeah. You know what that means. She acts like her rebellious mother." She said.

"No, more like her whiney father. I never could stand pain." He countered.

* * *

She put her head on his shoulders, was just beginning to enjoy a few moments of quietness with him when her cell phone rang. Looking at the caller ID, she answered the phone and asked the caller to hold on for a minute then motioned for Adrian to move away from the house where they could talk without fear of being heard.

They walked over to the construction area and sat down on the pile of wood that Jack had sat on earlier.

"Hey Leland, thanks for holding on there. I wanted to get to an area where things were a little more private." She said. "Yeah, he's here."

She held the phone up to both of their ears so that they could hear what Leland had run into in his research on JoAnn.

"What do you have?" asked Adrian.

_"Well…it looks like you're right to be suspicious. The real JoAnn Frazier died last November in Pasadena, California. I have no record of her ever being in Portland, and no record of a child named Kyle. I looked under Patton and Frazier. No such listing."_ He replied.

"This is not good. Thank you for checking, Leland. I can always count on you." He replied.

_"Yes, you can. Did you talk with Jack?"_ he asked.

"Yeah. I did. You wouldn't believe the story he told me. I still have no idea what the full story is and he's bound and determined not to tell me." Adrian replied.

_"Well isn't that sweet."_ Leland responded.

"Isn't it though?" Natalie said. "Almost makes me want to just leave here and let Jack fall into the black widow's spider web."

_"I would definitely classify this as a 'person of interest'."_ Said Leland. "_Interest in what, heck if I know."_

"If she's not JoAnn, who is she? And what does she want with Jack?" Adrian asked.

"Well, the clothing she is wearing shows she's not shy about spending money." Natalie replied. "Hey, what if Jack forgot about a secret savings account and is really a millionaire too?"

Adrian rolled his eyes at her. "You're never going to let me live that down, are you?" he asked.

"Nope." She smiled, touching her index finger to the tip of his nose and then kissing him on the cheek, to which he turned and kissed her with passion.

_"I'm still here…"_ Leland said on the telephone, causing both Natalie and Adrian to chuckle.

"Okay. Sorry. Um…yeah…" Natalie said, flustered. As she tried to form complete sentences, Adrian began to tease her, even as she was pushing him away.

"If…umm…you wanted to find out …um, more about this …(stop!) … broad…what would you…umm...Leland, just a second." She said, then putting her hand over the mouthpiece of her phone.

"You had better just stop that!" she scolded.

"What?" he demurred.

"Adrian you're practically pawing at me, what has gotten into you?" she asked.

He threw both hands up in the air, in mock surrender. "Okay, mental note. No pawing at the wife in the garden." He said.

She looked at him in half consternation half amusement. "At least not when she's on the phone." Removing her hand from the receiver, she continued the conversation with Leland.

"Since you went through the regular channels, where would you start next?" she asked.

"_Well, ask your husband, but these things tend to fall into one of two categories. Love or money. Since people are not inclined to deceive people they love…I'd say it's money that has put her in Jack's life."_ Leland said.

"Jack isn't a wealthy man." Adrian said. "He lives in a modest house on about 5 acres of dry dusty land in Midland and drives a truck."

_"Isn't Midland known for oil?"_ Leland inquired.

"Yeah, I guess." Adrian responded. "I've seen lots of wells all throughout the countryside."

"And fracking operations." Natalie added.

"_Maybe Ms. Up to No Good knows something about Jack's property that he doesn't."_ Leland suggested.

"So, it sounds like that the next thing we need to do is check out the history of this land?" Adrian asked.

_"That's what I would do."_ Leland responded.

After thanking Leland and hanging up the phone, Adrian stood up from the pile of wood and visually surveyed the entire area.

"It doesn't look like a place that someone would be preparing to drill or frack for oil on. I mean, she's having him build her a crafting cottage on the property. When have you seen one of those near any of the properties we've passed." He asked, Natalie.

"I haven't. But there's something. Something about this property, I really think Leland is on to something." Natalie replied.

"I do too. What is that woman up to?" Adrian inquired.


	16. Chapter 16

_Authors note: Welcome to my 200th chapter (357,000 words) in this Monk series. Thank you for sticking with me. After this chapter, things will start to get rather intense, so just giving you fair warning. __Special thanks to __Alex Hoodle, ___KittyKat06, _Dmander4483, New Reader, ___Country2776,_TrixieDixie6, and anonymous Guests for their input and faithfulness to these stories. I may not have full agreement on where I have taken the characters, but I've tried to be consistent with the idea that time has passed and events have made Adrian and Natalie extraordinarily close. You will see this closeness on display in chapters to come and a few lingering questions will be answered. Stay tuned.  
_

* * *

Natalie tossed and turned throughout that evening with the mystery of JoAnn Frazier being first and foremost on her mind. She knew that in the morning they were going to try to figure out _why_ the woman was there, but she was equally interested in _who_ she was. Each time she would start to nod off, every imaginable horror went through her mind concerning the situation, to the degree that she disturbed Adrian's sleep by her overall restlessness.

As he rolled onto his side and wrapped his arms around her, pulling her closely to his side, his presence seemed to quell her spirit and let her sleep; but, now his mind was busy thinking about the case, thinking about Jack, thinking about everything that had happened. He could not go back to sleep. So, at 3:00 AM, he slipped quietly out of bed and went into the kitchen to read.

* * *

He was surprised to see that Jack was already up and dressed, quietly making coffee for himself. Adrian stood for a moment just observing this man who seemed to look older and smaller each time that he saw him as if he were a man bowed over by regrets of a life filled with bad decisions. As he watched, Jack sensed that he was not alone and turned to see who had entered the room.

Looking up at him, Jack asked "Hey. You're up early. Want some coffee?"

Adrian looked down and quietly said, "Sure. If you have enough."

Jack walked to the cupboard and moved some mugs to the side and reached into the back where he retrieved a cup with the number ten on it. Walking to the sink, he rinsed any dust out of it, dried it and then filled it to the brim. Carefully setting it before Adrian, he said, "Black. Like you like it. I got that mug several years ago just for you, in case you ever would stop by."

"You did?" Adrian asked.

"Yeah. Figured it would make you feel more at home." He replied.

Adrian took a sip from the mug, gave a satisfied smile and then sat it down, tracing the pattern of the number with his fingers. He looked up at Jack. "Where are you heading so early?"

"Work. They have a delivery that they want me to make this morning." Jack replied.

"How often do you make deliveries these days?" Adrian asked.

"Usually about twice a week. I don't do the long trips like I used to, but they let me do short local runs." He answered.

"Ever think about retiring?" Adrian asked.

"Have you?" Jack asked.

"I've thought about it. Even discussed it a little with Natalie. But no, I'm not ready for that." He responded.

"Why not?" Jack inquired.

"Because, it's my life." Adrian answered.

"And now, you know why I don't retire. It's my life." Jack responded.

After a few more minutes of idle chitchat, Jack stood to leave. As the elder Monk drove away, Adrian watched the taillights of his automobile leave the driveway and wondered how long it would be before Jack found the DNA kit that Adrian had slipped into the front console. As he watched, he also flashed back to himself as an eight-year-old child watching his father leave for Chinese food, never to return to the family unit, and a sadness crept over him. That day had officially marked the end of his childhood. He thought of Lee and Abby and vowed to himself and God that he would be a different kind of father to them, and they would never have to worry about whether he would leave them or whether they were loved.

* * *

Moving back through the house, he quietly walked over to a set of shelves where Jack kept all of his books and noticed a first edition copy of Dashiell Hammett's _The Maltese Falcon._ Taking it out of the shelf, he sat down in a chair and opened it to the inside cover where he read, '_To My Son Adrian, Christmas, 1967_.'

"The year he left. He must have gotten it for me as a gift that year." He muttered to himself, beginning to cry as memories of his childhood with Jack began to parade through his mind. If Jack Monk wasn't his father, why did he feel such sadness when he thought of him walking away? It was all so confusing. Rather than put the book back, he sat back and began speed reading it, just as Jack had taught him to do. As he delved into it, he was struck with the remembrance that it was about a detective in San Francisco. It was as if Jack knew. But why would Jack care? Adrian needed to know the truth.

At quarter till four, Natalie woke up and realized that Adrian was not in bed. She slipped on her robe and slippers and walked through the house looking for him, finding him sitting up in a chair with his reading glasses resting in his hand, a book across his chest, sound sleep. She hated to disturb him because he looked so peaceful, but she knew that the position he was in was likely to cause issues, so she quietly walked over to him and removed the book from his hands, and then shook him gently and got him to get up and go back to bed.

Four hours later, they were both up and out of the house, kicking off the quest for information on 'JoAnn'.

* * *

The first stop was the Midland County Courthouse. The specific objective in stopping there was to look at land records to trace the history of Jack's property. It wasn't hard finding what they wanted, since the record keeping at the courthouse was indexed, but finding out the significance of the information would require additional research.

Through searching deeds, they discovered that there had been only four owners of the property where Jack Monk's house now sat. Prior to Jack's purchase of the property in the 1980s, a Lyle Wetmore owned it for fifteen years, Lyle purchased it from a widowed woman named Jacobs, and finally the land was part of a larger estate of a man named Paris Dixley.

Dixley's family had held the land ever since he received a settlement grant by the government of the Republic of Texas to plant his roots on the Texan Frontier in 1842 in the amount of 640 acres. However, further research showed that Dixley himself did not spend much time on the property, abandoning it and his family in 1849 to go look for gold in California. Legend had it that he struck gold and struck it big, but the family never showed evidence of that wealth, even after he returned. They mostly made their living as landlords of sharecroppers who settled in the area after the civil war.

The Dixley's personal stake was on the properties adjacent to and including Jack's own property and consisted of a 50 acre farm where they raised cattle and sheep at various times in its history. Beginning in the 1920s, they began to sell off the property, and Jack Monk's land was part of that first division of land sales. Other than the house, it remained undeveloped from the time of the Dixley ownership until present, though there were attempts to drill for oil there in the 1920s and 1970s with no results.

* * *

As they finished up at the courthouse, Adrian and Natalie walked across the street for some lunch. As they did, they did not observe a 1990s Camry with tinted windows pulling into a parking lot on the other side of the street. It sat there for an hour, just waiting and watching for when they would return. When they did, it started up and followed them over to the library – again being very careful to stay out of view. Paulie LaSalle was very good at hiding in plain sight. It was how he had evaded escape for months. He was also good at stalking prey, and at that moment in time Adrian Monk was now his most wanted victim.

* * *

Inside the library, the Monks each sat at a computer and read through newspaper articles about the Fraziers and the local Frazier store. They had been there a little over a half hour when Adrian found what they were looking for.

"Jillian Haskell." He said.

"Who?" Natalie asked.

"Jillian Haskell. There is an article here about Mrs. Frazier and it shows where she was reunited through internet search with a twin sister who had been adopted at birth by a Haskell family in Akron, Ohio. It has their picture. The two are pretty much identical."

"So, our 'JoAnn' is actually Jillian?" Natalie asked.

"Yes. And get this. The article says that JoAnn was adopted by a railroad worker named Martin Jacobs and his wife Josephine, who eventually settled in Midland, Texas. Wasn't Josephine the owner of Jack's property two owners ago?" he asked.

"Yes. She sold the property in 1969 to Wetmore." Natalie replied. "So, she has to be after something she knows, or believes, is on the property."

Adrian looked up at her. "I'll bet it is the gold. There is no oil on the land, at least not that which is readily available. I'll bet Paris Dixley brought his gold back with him and they believe that he has it buried somewhere on Jack's property. And, I'll bet it's in the general vicinity of where he's building that craft cottage."

"Adrian. We have to let Jack know about this. He can't continue living under the same roof as this woman. She'll marry him and then kill him just to get ahold of the money." She replied.

"I agree. Let's gather whatever evidence on paper that we can, and I'll approach him about it this evening."

* * *

At four o'clock in the afternoon, the Monks left the confines of the library and walked to their car. From about a block away, Paulie followed them as they traveled through the main drag in Midland and then drove directly to Jack's house. Jack was not home, nor was 'JoAnn', so they let themselves into the house and stayed there until Jack did arrive while Paulie watched from afar.


	17. Chapter 17

Jillian Haskell walked in through the back door of Jack Monk's house, laden with shopping bags from her latest spree in town. Following her by a few steps was Jack who carried twice the load as she did and looked worn out from the venture.

"Good evening, Adrian…Natalie." She said as she pranced through the house, heading towards her and Jack's bedroom. "Jackie doll, please be a dear and carry those packages in here. We can put everything up in a few moments."

Jack huffed and puffed his way through the kitchen area, only nodding at Adrian and Natalie as went and did Jillian's bidding. Meanwhile, Adrian sat calmly at the kitchen table with his hands folded in front of him resting on a folder of documents, while Natalie stood at the sink steeping a tea bag from a cup of tea she had just made. She took the tea bag out of the cup, threw it away, and then sat at the table to Adrian's right, remaining stone quiet.

"No! Jackie! Not there. Over in the corner! Do I have to do everything myself?" Jillian asked.

"I'm sorry, JoAnn. I didn't know." Said Jack.

"Well be more careful. We have to get through over there and if there are a bunch of bags and boxes in the way…" she said.

"Jack! When you get a moment, I'd like to see you in the kitchen please." Adrian said.

"Here?" Jack asked breathlessly.

"No. Over there. Yes. Right there." She replied.

"Jack, JoAnn I'd actually like to see you both." Adrian yelled.

Natalie nervously stirred her tea. After everything that they had found this afternoon, she knew her husband was loaded for bear and she wasn't exactly sure how things were going to go down. She felt bad for Jack, because nobody likes when someone else deceives them, but the knowledge of who he had gotten himself involved with in his winter years made her both sad and disgusted, and it made Adrian even worse. He was quietly seething.

After several minutes, Jillian came bounding back into the room with a wilted looking Jack on her heels. He began to sit down at the table when she ordered him to get back up and help her with the rest of the packages. He exhaled strongly and began to follow, when Adrian said "No! The packages will wait. I need both of you to come sit at the table right now."

"But…" Jillian said.

"No buts. Sit! Now! You too, Jack!" Adrian said tersely. "Natalie, sweetheart. Will you get Jack some water?"

"What about me?" Jillian asked, sitting down.

"No. He's the one out of breath. He needs water. You. No." Adrian replied.

"Son…where's your manners?" Jack asked, then suddenly having what he believed was a revelation, he jumped up from the table, ran to the back door.

"Where are you going?" asked Adrian.

Jack went out on the back porch and picked up his jacket and brought it into the kitchen. Reaching into the pocket he pulled out the DNA kit, hung the jacket on a door handle and tossed the kit onto the table in front of Adrian.

"If it's about this…I already told you, forget it. I'm not taking it. I know who my son is, and even if he doesn't want to recognize me…" Jack proclaimed.

"It's not…about that!" Adrian said, boiling now with frustration and anger over two things. "Sit down…please."

Jack sat at the table and tossed both hands up in the air. "Alright. If it's not about that, what's it about?" he asked.

Adrian looked at Jillian and then at Jack and leaned forward, sliding the folder across the table towards Jack. "It's about…this." He replied.

Jack looked suspiciously towards Adrian, and then opened the folder. As he did, Jillian stretched across the table to see what he was seeing.

It was a photocopy of a newspaper article. The headline read: _Widow of Retailer Edgar Frazier is Dead: The Former JoAnn Jacobs was Beauty Queen Before Marriage._

As Jack read the words, a look of confusion registered on his face, whereas Jillian's expression hardened into a cold, angry scowl.

Jack blinked a few times and then helplessly looked up at Adrian, and then Jillian. "I…I don't understand…what does this mean?"

Jillian stared straight ahead as Adrian began spelling things out to Jack.

"Jack…here's what happened. The real JoAnn Frazier was the adopted child of a couple from Midland County named Jacobs. She had been adopted when she was just a few months old and was raised right here on this property. She grew up, went to school here, and it was from here that she became a participant in the Miss Texas Pageant, in which she placed 1st runner up. While a participant she met and later married Edgar Frazier with whom she had, by all appearances ,a healthy loving relationship.

Shortly before Edgar died, JoAnn was contacted over the internet by a woman claiming to be her twin sister. Of course, JoAnn was interested in finding out more, so she responded back to this woman…" he said looking over at Jillian, "Jillian Haskell Patton…eventually did some testing and confirmed that indeed she was her long-lost twin sister.

Since Jillian was a single mother, JoAnn invited her to stay with her and Edgar while they became acquainted with every detail of each other's lives. This included the fact that there had been a persistent rumor that JoAnn had heard her entire life that the previous owners had buried a substantial amount of gold, from the California Gold Rush, on this property. In addition to this obscure but significant piece of information, they exchanged details of their personal lives. Jillian grew up impoverished in an abusive household, as evidenced by her adoptive father's arrest record, which is also in that stack of papers. JoAnn lived a charmed life, happy family, happy marriage – she didn't have children, but her life with Edgar was somewhat of a dream. The more that Jillian found out the more jealous she became of her sister to the point that she began to plot taking away that charmed life and adopting it as her own.

Within six months of Jillian and her son Kyle moving into the Frazier mansion, Edgar Frazier suddenly died. Initial thoughts was it was a car accident, but Frazier never travelled alone and police soon discovered that his brake line had been tampered with indicating he was murdered. Nobody was ever apprehended for the crime, and JoAnn made sure that her dear loving sister was never suspected.

I had Leland run a check on JoAnn…" Adrian said.

"What? You had the cops check up on me?!" Jillian fumed.

"I had the police check on _JoAnn_, Jillian. That's where we first found that the real JoAnn died while on vacation in California last November. That's about the time you met Jack, isn't it…Jillian?" he asked.

Jillian's nostrils flared and her eyes narrowed into ferocious slits. "I don't have to sit here and listen to this nonsense! Jackie! Do something! I told you that Adrian never liked me and now he's here lying to you…"

Jack thumbed through the newspapers and other photocopies briefly and then sadly looked up at Adrian, then at Jillian. "My son may not like you, but if there is one thing that he isn't it's a liar. How…how could you?"

Jillian slammed her fist down on the table and pushed her chair out of the way. "Fine! That's it! We're through!" she said, removing the small engagement ring from her hand and throwing it towards Jack Monk. "Kyle! Where are you? Get packed, we're leaving!" she said stomping through the house.

* * *

While the three Monks sat at the table listening to things being slammed around in the other room, Adrian raised his voice and said "Jillian…if I were you, I would not leave the state. Natalie and I stopped by the Midland County police station this afternoon and they are very interested in talking to you concerning the death of Edgar Frazier. It would probably go better on you if you perhaps turned yourself in so that they didn't have to spend resources pursuing you." He said.

Jillian came storming into the kitchen followed by Kyle. With a reddened face and veins bulging from her forehead, she went to the sink and grabbed a kitchen knife, then turned to run towards Adrian. Kyle grabbed her around the waist and left her suspended in mid-air, kicking to let go.

"Mother, drop the knife. Now! We don't want to make this any worse than it already is." He said, reaching forward his hand and taking the knife from her and handing it, handle end, to Jack Monk.

Kyle looked at those sitting at the table and softly said "I told her that this was a stupid thing to pursue, particularly after Edgar's death. We…we will just pick up a few of our things and be going in a few minutes."

* * *

After ten minutes, they were gone.

All of the shopping bags were still piled up in Jack's bedroom, but each drawer that Jillian had used was hanging open and the room generally looked like a bomb had gone off inside. Jack, Adrian, and Natalie sat quietly in the aftermath.

Finally, Adrian broke the silence. "I'm sorry you had to go through that."

Jack clenched his jaw. "Are you?"

Adrian looked at him. "Yes. Of course I am, why would you think I wasn't?"

Jack grabbed the file folder and slung it across the kitchen, then stood up. "Why did you come?! Did you come to destroy your father's life?!"

Adrian stood. "I told you why I'm here! I found the receipt and I want answers!" he said. "I want to know for sure who I am."

"I told you that you are my son! But that's not good enough for you. You don't want to believe your old man, and I suppose if I were you I would have a hard time of it too, but that's all I have kid. I told you the truth. I don't want to discuss it any more!" he said, picking up his jacket and marching out the door.

Adrian stood in the middle of the room not knowing what to do.

Natalie spoke to him, "Adrian. Don't let him go. You wanted answers, don't let him back out of giving them to you."

Adrian looked down at Natalie and nodded. Grabbing the DNA kit off of the table, he ran out the back door in hot pursuit of Jack who was already opening his car door.

* * *

"Jack! Stop!" he said, running across the lawn.

Jack started up his vehicle.

"Don't you dare run away this time! You owe me answers!" he cried.

Jack backed out and turned the car around heading the nose towards the road.

"I gave you life. I owe you nothing more. Now, do me a favor and go back to Boston. It's clear that you don't want me to be your father, and right now…well, I would rather just be alone." Jack said, slowly making his way down the driveway towards the street.

"Jack! Get back here!" Adrian said, running towards the car. "Don't walk out of my life again. Stay. Help me find the truth!" he said as Jack pulled out onto the road and started driving. About a quarter of a mile down the road, out of anger and frustration, Adrian threw the box which hit Jack's back windshield. Winded and dejected, he bent over to catch his breath and then turned slowly and began walking down the center of the street back towards the house.

After he had walked a few steps, he suddenly heard the sound of a car motor revving up behind him. Turning around, he saw the frame of the vehicle barreling down the middle of the street and watched as it seemed to speed up with him in its sights. He began to run as fast as he could to get out of its way, but it was of no use. He turned his head and all he could see were the headlights of a 1990s Toyota Camry. He looked to his side to see if there was a place to exit, but before he knew it the car was right there next to him. The speed of the car was destined to overcome him, so he instinctively raised the leg closest to the vehicle, a move he had seen stuntmen do. This caused him to fly up on the hood upon impact, without the car making contact with his legs. From there, the sheer velocity of the vehicle drew him sideways into the windshield, and then catapulted him through the air, leaving him sprawled out on his back in the middle of a ditch on the side of the road only five yards from Jack Monk's driveway.

As it so happens, in Texas where everything is flat, you can often see forever. As such, Jack Monk heard the roar of the engine and watched in his rear-view mirror as Paulie took chase. Jack's car came to a screeching halt and he turned around, turning back towards the house to rescue Adrian. He soon found it was too little too late as he witnessed from behind, Adrian's body fly into the air and land in the ditch. Dust stirred as he whirled his car into the driveway. Leaving his car door open, he bounded out of the vehicle and ran to Adrian's side.

Adrian's eyes were open, and he was with it enough to tell Jack to go tell Natalie what had happened and to call an ambulance. Within a minute, Natalie had run out of the house in tears and joined Adrian's side. His face was pained and had begun growing paler. He looked towards her and blinked his eyes several times, as she leaned in and stroked his face.

"I…I'm sorry, sweetheart." He said.

"For what, my love?" she said.

"I couldn't run…fast..enough." he replied.

"Shhh…don't even think about that. Just save your strength. The ambulance will be here soon." She said.

He closed his eyes for just a moment and continued to talk. "I…I think it was Paulie La..Lasalle."

Tears rolled down her face. "We will get him. You just rest honey."

"Nat-lee." He said. "If..if something happens…"

"No. Adrian. Don't talk like that. Nothing is going to happen." She looked up and saw the ambulance coming up to the house.

"The Ambulance is here right now, Adrian. They are here to help you." She said.

"Alright…but…if something happens…." He said.

"Oh, Adrian!" she cried. "Please don't talk this way.

He looked at her. "I love you, sweet…heart. I always…will. And…you..have made me huh-happier…"

"Adrian, please. Please save your strength. The EMTs are here. They are going to save you."

The ambulance parked and soon the local Midland emergency services personnel came running to Adrian's side. As one EMT read the particulars to the others, another ran up to Adrian and put his hand on Natalie's shoulder.

"Excuse me ma'am. We need to assess his condition." The man said, shoving Natalie out of the way.

Jack wrapped his arms around his daughter-in-law and the two watched helplessly as the EMTs worked with Adrian. With each passing moment he grew paler and paler. His breathing was becoming increasingly shallow and the EMTs looked concerned when they took his blood pressure.

"Blood pressure is 84/40." Said one EMT to the other.

"Heart rate?" asked the other.

"135 bpm." She replied.

"Okay. Grab the cervical collar and let's get going with the IV fluids… Hello, Mr. Monk. My name is Ed, and I'm an emergency technician with the Midland EMS. Can you tell me what happened?"

Adrian's breathing became even more labored and he struggled to form words. "N..Nuh..Nat..lee." he managed to say.

Natalie stood to the side with Jack who still had his comforting arm around her.

"I'm here honey. It's okay. I'm not going anywhere."

As the EMT's put him in the collar, Ed asked for another reading on his vitals.

"72 over 35" the technician responded.

Adrian's pale face was now covered in drops of sweat and he struggled to maintain consciousness. "Nuh..Nat-lee…I…I nuh..need my wife…" he said.

"It's okay, Mr. Monk. She's right here. Sir, we need to transfer you to the hospital. You've had a bad accident and we need to get you to the hospital." He said.

"65 over 33." the monitoring EMT said.

"Okay, we need to administer a unit of whole blood and get him transferred right away."

"N-Nat…" Adrian whispered, his eyes now searching but not seeming to rest on any one thing.

"Adrian! I'm here." She sobbed. "Please, can I see him?"

As an EMT readied the blood transfusion, Ed nodded his head and allowed Natalie to see Adrian. She ran to his side, clasping his hand.

"I'm here honey. Hold on. It's okay. You're going to be okay." She said.

As his eyes began to glaze over, he searched for her and whispered through now very shallow breaths. "I love..you…Lee…Ab..by…Please…"

"Oh, Adrian. My darling! It's okay. Just hang on. Stay with us." She said.

"60 over 30." Said the monitoring technician.

"Pulse?" he asked.

"Weakening." He answered.

"Let's get that blood going. I'm sorry, ma'am, but I need to ask you to step back over there." He said.

"Please tell me he is going to be okay." She said.

"We're doing everything we can." He said, grimly.

Natalie stepped back over by Jack who was now crying as he watched Adrian slipping away before his eyes. She clasped his hands and watched anxiously as the team worked feverishly to save her husband.

By now, Adrian's breathing was very rapid and his pulse was growing weaker.

Natalie held it together until she heard one EMT say, "We're losing him." At which point she felt her knees grow weak and made an attempt to run back to his side. Jack held her back and she began to sob into her hands even as she kept her eyes trained on Adrian.

"Ready resuscitative equipment." Ed ordered.

Adrian's breath was now beginning to catch as if he could take in a breath but not let one out. As he labored, she could see him open his eyes and observed a tear fall down his cheek. "N..Nah….Don't…wan't…go…"

"Please! Adrian! Hold on!" She sobbed.

"Nah..nat…lee…" he said, then his eyes opened widely and his facial expression changed completely as he said on the exhale… "Trudy?"

* * *

"I have no pulse!" said the monitoring EMT as the others launched into action. Natalie's knees gave way as her world came crashing down on her, and she sank to the ground sobbing uncontrollably. Jack tried to comfort her but was too shaken up himself, and just leaned over her, weeping openly into her hair.

As the EMTs worked feverishly to save him, Adrian Monk stood outside his body watching the entire scene take place. It was the strangest feeling he had ever felt. He began to ponder the moment, but was interrupted when he looked up to see Trudy beckoning him to follow her.


	18. Chapter 18

_Author's note: Last chapter was a bit rough, huh? I hope you find this one more satisfying. Sometimes I produce more than one chapter in a day, but I knew after writing the last one that I needed to follow it up quickly with this one. Enjoy._

* * *

Adrian Monk's world faded around him as a soft light grew coming from Trudy's general direction. There she was, standing in her beautiful white dress, blonde locks cascading onto her shoulder. She was smiling at him, like the smile of old friends when they have seen each other for the first time after an extended time apart.

"Good to see you, Adrian." She said softly. "Won't you take a walk with me?"

Adrian moved slowly towards her, leaving the side of his broken body and the anguish that was happening in Midland. As his world was suddenly bathed in an ethereal glow which sparkled, the colors of the Texas landscape turned to muted and hazy pastels fading into a solid white.

Adrian was now face to face with Trudy and every loving thought he ever had towards her came flooding back into his mind. She was, after all, his first love.

"It's been a while." She said, taking his hand, and leading him over to a white marble bench that seemed to materialize out of nowhere. "You look good."

"Thank you. It's been several years. " He replied. "So do you."

"I saw where you remarried." She stated, still with the same smile on her face and look of love in her eyes.

He stopped for a moment and thought of Natalie, and then looked up to Trudy, "I did." He said, without even the slightest hint of guilt or concern.

"I am happy for you. I always knew that Natalie would be good for you. I am so happy that she has brought you happiness." She said.

He looked down, and smiled. "She has."

"And, I see you have children now. Two. Leland and Abigail is it?" she asked.

"Yes. We call them Lee and Abby." He replied.

"That's wonderful. I have watched you with them. I always knew you would be a wonderful father." She said.

He smiled and then looked around a moment. Turning back to Trudy he asked, "Where is this place? Is this Heaven? Am I …am I dead?"

She looked at him with a more serious expression. "You are severely injured. Your vital signs are fading."

"But am I dead?" he asked.

"No. You are not dead." She replied.

"Then this can't be heaven." He said.

"No. It is not. Call it…another dimension. I don't even know how to explain it. But, I know that sometimes, when people are near death or dying, they experience this state before they pass on." She replied.

"I got hit by a car." He said.

"Yes. Someone tried to kill you." She replied.

"I remember…Why? Why am I here?" he asked.

She just smiled. "Only you can discover that."

"Trudy. Don't talk to me in riddles. Just tell me. What am I doing here?" he asked.

She paused. "You're having a conversation with me."

"So, you brought me to this place so we could talk?" he asked.

"No. I brought you to this place so you could decide." She said.

"Decide what? Whether I want to live or die?" he asked.

"Is that a decision you _want_ to make?" she replied.

He thought for a moment "I don't think that's up to me."

She smiled.

"What's it like?" he asked.

"Heaven?" she replied.

"Yes." he answered.

"Remember when you went to my parents' house in order to help Dad solve the mystery around the cheating game show host?" she asked.

"Yes." He nodded.

"Remember after you solved the case, you went up to my bedroom and found my old diary that I had as a child, and you read my words about how God wants people to be happy, and how nobody can stay sad forever?" she asked.

"I do." He replied.

"That's what heaven is like. It's a place where everyone is happy, and all tears are wiped away. It's everything that God planned it to be. And, it's beautiful." She said.

"I never was very religious." He said.

"No. But you had faith in God. Remember when you told Dr. Bell that you used to pray for a real family?" she asked.

"Yeah. That was when I met Jack Jr." he said. "Hey…is Jack Sr. my father or not?"

"What do you think?" she asked.

"I don't know." He replied.

"I think you do." She said. "Adrian, God answered your prayer. He has given you a family, and a wife that adores you. Of course, I adore you too. But, you have found your own little slice of heaven on earth, as well, in how happy you are with your wife. I've seen you. She brings out a playfulness in you that is really, very charming. I couldn't be happier that she is in your life."

"You said I have a choice that I have to make. What is it?" he asked.

"What is it that you want, Adrian? If you come with me, I promise, you will be happy. It will beyond anything that you could imagine, and I'll be there with you, never to depart again. If you stay with Natalie, you will have to lose a few things, but you will also be quite happy. And, you will be there for Lee and Abby as they grow up." She replied.

"So, my choice is between you and Natalie?" he asked.

"I didn't say that. I asked you what you want." She replied.

He stood up from the bench and walked a few paces away, then turned back to Trudy.

"They need me." He said. "And…I need them."

Trudy smiled but said nothing.

"Trudy, you know how much I loved you…I still love you. That hasn't changed. But, I love Natalie just as much, but in a different way." He said.

"How so?" Trudy asked.

"Well…With you, I was just amazed you could love me. You taught me what love was. You were my world and I was yours. And yet, I don't know why." He replied.

"Why, what?" she asked.

"Why you said that I was your life. I mean, I fought for you and provided for you and loved you with everything I had, but honestly, you could have had any man you wanted, and he could have done the same." He said.

"I wanted you." She said.

"Yeah. You did. That always got to me. Did you have a screw loose or something?" he asked, smiling slightly.

Trudy laughed. "No. I did not have a screw loose."

"With Natalie, it's different. She…she makes my heart skip a beat and lights up the room when she enters it. But, it's also very real, and very…reciprocal. We are even partners in our relationship. And…we come at the world together. She helps to keep me emotionally steady, and I help keep her grounded. And yet, it's not...a business relationship, though we work well in that setting. And it's not like I'm beneath her, as I felt I was beneath you. It's comfortable and passionate and loving and mutually satisfying, you know? It's just…special. And…I'm terribly happy with her and would hate…" He replied.

Trudy smiled. "And so…he finally gets it."

Adrian looked at her, confused. "What's that?"

"Adrian, the entire time we were together we had this sort of romantic love where you would give me absolutely anything if I wanted it, and I would nurture and give you the love that you needed. Our love ran deep and strong…but, your identity was so wrapped up in me, that when I died, you did too. Emotionally, for many years, part of Adrian Monk died." She said.

"I know that." He replied.

"I know you do. And you have said being with Natalie was like being reborn." She said. "Adrian, are you hearing yourself talk? You used words like 'partners' and 'reciprocal' and ' mutually satisfying.' You said that you help keep her grounded and she keeps you steady. It's taken almost 60 years, but I think you're finally starting to see your own worth as a human being." She replied.

"My worth?" he asked.

"Yes, Adrian. You were not my inferior, but you practically worshiped me simply because I chose to love you. You were so love-starved at home, that you never thought you were worth loving – but you are, Adrian. And, I think now, with Natalie's help, you're finally seeing where you fit into this crazy world and that you are valuable, and that you do contribute something meaningful. _You_ are special. You! Adrian Monk! Not you, Trudy's husband. Not you, Natalie's husband. But just yourself. You have a purpose to fulfill, and I think you see that now." She answered.

He thought for a moment. "You're right. My view of who I am has changed from when I was with you. I can't say that I really see myself as special, like you say…but, I do believe that my life has meaning and that I'm there for a purpose."

"And so, there is your choice. Your life is not defined by whose biological child you are or even whose spouse you are. Your life is defined by recognizing that you have a role to play in that world, and making the decision to go with all you've got to attain that goal…the high prize as we say here.

What do you want, Adrian? Do you want to stay with me? Or do you want all that you have with Natalie?"

He stopped for just a moment and looked at her, then shrugged his shoulders. "Trudy, I love you. But what can I say? I've got a lot of living left to do…and I don't' want to do it without my wife and children."

Trudy smiled. "I knew you would choose that, and I couldn't be happier for you. We will be together again someday anyway, and then I would like for you to introduce me and Natalie. I'm sure we will have plenty of stories to trade."

She stood up and walked towards him. Taking both of his hands, she said "I have to say goodbye again. There is someone who will lead you back to where you need to be. Please take better care of yourself. You're going to need your energy when those two youngsters start walking."

"Goodbye Trudy. Until we meet again." He said.

"Bread and butter, my love. Bread and butter." She said, turning from him and walking into a mist where she disappeared.

* * *

As she disappeared, the stark white began to be filled with pastels again. He turned to go back where he came from, and was shocked when he came immediately face to face with Michael.

"Michael! Wh..what are you doing here?" Adrian asked.

"I told you I would see you later." He replied.

"Wait…if you're here…does that make you my….?" He asked.

"Yes. It does." Michael replied.

"But wait a minute. You could protect me from the flying bullet, that was really cool by the way- what you did…" he said.

"Thank you." Michael answered, with a nod.

"But…you couldn't protect me from a 3,500 lb car?" he asked.

"That wasn't a part of my mission." Michael replied.

"But…" Adrian protested.

"Sometimes, it's best not to ask questions. I just do as I'm told. Now are you ready to go back?" Michael asked.

Adrian looked around and smiled. "I'm very ready."

"Excellent. Now, I'll have to tell you that some things will be changed. You'll lose a little, but ultimately it will be for your good. Just roll with it and wait for it to happen. Gotta get you back now, but we'll meet up again, hopefully _much_ later." Michael explained.

Adrian nodded his head.

"Now I want you to close your eyes and take in a deep breath, then let it out." Michael instructed.

* * *

It had only been around two minutes since Adrian had essentially coded, but it seemed like an eternity. As the EMTs continued to perform CPR, a dark dread fell over the entire crew. Even though it was many minutes before they would actually have to call the death, given the shape Adrian was in when they arrived and his rapid deterioration, they each had a foreboding that the call would happen.

Ed turned to one of the other EMTs and asked that they inject a dosage of Vasopressin into his IV.

"Come on, Monk. Breathe. Come back." He whispered.

Natalie sat on the ground her body quivering from nervous energy and her eyes reflecting the utter sorrow which filled her heart. Jack sat beside her, nervously fidgeting with the hem of his shirt, taking time occasionally to look up as the EMTs continued to work. Sorrow was etched on his face, after all, he had spent so little time with Adrian during his life, and now when they should have been enjoying their reunification, they had spent their last moments together fighting.

"Please God. Not now. Let me fix it." He prayed.

Within seconds, the yard was filled with the most beautiful sound that Natalie and Jack ever heard. The sound of a huge inward breathe, reverberated through the air, followed by a consistent pattern of inward and outward breaths which caused Natalie and Jack to literally jump for joy. As they hugged one another and cried, on that day they also came to a new understanding and appreciation for one another as they watched their beloved Adrian return to their side. Their shared love for this man and desire for his well-being caused them to bond in a real and permanent way. Regardless what the stupid DNA kit had to say, Natalie knew this was Adrian's father and would work to see that Adrian saw that as well.


	19. Chapter 19

Leland and Trudy Stottlemeyer had been asleep for two hours when the phone call jolted them awake at 1AM, San Francisco time. Rolling over and putting on his glasses, Leland saw the caller ID was that of Natalie Monk. Alarm bells immediately went off in his mind since she never called at this hour.

"Hello, Natalie?" he asked.

"Hi, Mr. Stottlemeyer. This is Julie, Natalie's daughter." Came the voice on the other end of the line.

Leland blinked a few times, trying to shake the cobwebs from his mind and sat up.

"Julie. Hello. Wasn't expecting it to be you. Is everything okay?" he asked.

Julie paused. "No. No, it's not. It's Adrian." She replied.

"Oh no. What has happened now?" he asked.

"He…well, someone tried to kill him with a car." She replied.

"You mean, he was _hit _by a car." Leland said, hoping that it wasn't as she said.

"No, sir. A 1990s era Camry with tinted windows purposely pursued him and rammed into him in the middle of the street in front of his dad's house." She replied.

"And, he was in another car?" Leland asked.

"No. He was on foot." She replied.

"Oh heavens. How bad is it?" he asked.

Julie paused again, her voice breaking slightly. "It's bad. He's…he has been in surgery for the past eight hours. He coded on them once."

Leland shut his eyes, and shook his head, then exhaled. "Prognosis?"

"We don't know. The EMTs were able to stabilize him and gave him a transfusion right there on the street. The guy checking him into the emergency room told Mom, that that one act may have saved his life. But, when they took him back, apparently, they needed to intubate him because he was in a lot of distress. I just got here about an hour ago." She replied.

"And your Mom? How is Natalie holding up?" he asked.

"She's back in the ICU waiting room with Jack. They are both very worried. Just…waiting." She replied.

Leland looked back over at Trudy and shook his head, then turned back towards the phone.

"I can see if I can get a flight back out to Midland as soon as the airlines open back up. I think the first flights out are around 6AM. Not sure if those take me to Midland, but I will try to get there as soon as possible." He said.

"I'm not sure that they will let any non-immediate family in at this point. But, when he is out of surgery, I can call you back and let you know what they say. I would hate for you to have to come here and then have to wait outside. I've already called Ambrose, and he and Heather are looking for the first flight out as well. I just knew you would want to know." She said.

"I do. Thank you, Julie." He replied. "Before you hang up though, do they have any idea who did this?"

"Yeah. Mom and Jack believe it was some guy named Paul and wanted me to ask you to check into it." Julie replied.

"Paulie LaSalle?" he asked.

"Yeah, that's the name. They didn't see the guy personally, but they were speculating and that's the name they came up with." She answered.

"That would make the most sense. Okay, young lady. Please…please keep me posted. And if I can actually go out there and help in any way, please let me know." He responded.

"I will, Mr. Stottlemeyer." She replied.

"Call me Leland, Julie. We've known each other so long, I feel like you're almost my niece. " he said.

"That's because you and Adrian are as close as brothers. I'll let you know." She answered. "Talk to you soon. Hopefully with _good_ news."

Leland hung up the phone and explained all to T.K. who immediately got up and began looking for travel arrangements. The earliest flight that she could find was at 12:00 PM out of San Francisco International. She called and had the airport reserve a fully refundable seat for Leland just in case, then the two laid back down to get more sleep since they knew that it was likely to be a very stressful day. Of course, what sleep they were able to get was very fitful, but at least they tried.

* * *

At 4:30 AM, Midland time, a nurse walked into the waiting room and told Natalie, Julie, and Jack that surgery was over and that the doctor would be speaking to them in a consultation room in about five minutes.

When he arrived, he looked tired from a long night's work but the fact that he had a slight smile when he entered gave them all comfort.

"Hello, I'm Dr. Cohen, are you Mrs. Monk?" he asked.

Natalie stood, holding on to Jack's arm as she did so. "Yes. I am. And this is Adrian's father, Jack, and our daughter Julie." She replied.

"Pleased to meet you." Dr. Cohen replied. "I just wanted to give you the update on Adrian's surgery. When they first brought him in, to tell you the truth, I thought this was going to be a much different conversation, and that I would be having it much earlier. I'm happy to report that I was wrong.

Adrian's injuries were extensive, but he did very well. We knew immediately by his signs that he had likely gone into what is called hypovolemic shock from some internal bleeding. When we opened him up, we found that his spleen had ruptured, he had multiple broken ribs on the left side, resulting in a partially collapsed lung, plus there was a small laceration on his liver and he has bruising on his left kidney. Aside from that, upon palpating his skull, he had a nasty bump on the back of his head, likely from when he hit the ground. We don't believe his head hit the windshield. His body took the brunt of that.

First thing we had to do is get the bleeding to stop. I attempted to repair the spleen, but it was too damaged. So, we had to remove it entirely. This may cause some immunity issues for him, so you'll have to watch that. But it looks like he kept himself in otherwise good health, so I expect he will do well without it.

We cauterized the bleeding section of his liver, and that seemed to do the trick. I also inserted a small tube in his chest wall in order to remove the air from his pleural cavity which is causing the collapsed lung. We've already begun seeing improvement there. The rest of his abdominal injuries are relatively minor, but we will be watching him for a few days to make sure nothing develops.

As to the head injury, your husband is very fortunate. Once we got the bleeding under control, I ran an EEG, or encephalogram, on him to see what his brain function was like. With these sorts of injuries we look for abnormalities in the occipital lobe which controls the sight functionality of patients, or disconnects in the electrical activity that feeds that area due to types of hemiplegia which can affect a variety of different things. And, well…" the doctor said.

"Please tell me he's okay." Natalie said.

"Ma'am. All I can say is your husband's brain is extraordinary! I'm saving the results, with your permission, to show to some of the medical students that intern here. Neural functioning appears to be utterly undiminished to the point that I'm going to place him into a medically induced coma for anywhere from a few days to a couple of weeks, depending on how he heals, just to slow his brain down a bit so the rest of his body can heal." The doctor replied.

"A coma? What does that entail?" Jack asked.

"When we put someone in a medically induced coma, just like in a regular coma, it is impossible to wake them up through normal means. Unlike a regular coma, we can choose when to wake them up. I don't think we will have any brain swelling, but this will help with that and at a certain point in time, we will wean him off of the drugs which are keeping him in the coma and wake him up. Depending on how long we have him in the coma, he will likely need a little rehab, but my patients have done very well in that condition.

I will warn you, that often these patients will say odd things when they first wake up and they will remember things that never happened. They can not communicate, but many say they can hear what is going on around them, though sometimes their interpretation of their outer environment gets a bit screwy. If that happens, know it is perfectly normal and just let him talk. He'll be back to his normal self in no time." Cohen replied.

"Is he out of the woods then?" asked Jack

"Right now, I have him listed in critical but stable condition, but if he continues to do as well as he has been doing, I should be upgrading him within the next day or so."

"What about visitors?" Julie asked.

"No. Only immediate family for now. Once I move him to a private room and out of ICU, he can have some visitors, but I would still limit them to only those closest to him. The idea is for him to rest and recover. He's been through a lot." Cohen answered.

"Thank you, Doctor Cohen, for everything." Natalie said. "You have no idea how relieved I am that he did so well."

"Your husband is a fighter, ma'am. That's for sure." He said. "I'll have the nurse come back in here in a few minutes and lead you to where he's being moved to within ICU. He's sleeping well. May I suggest that you try to get some sleep as well? It won't do him any good if you make yourself sick." He said.

"I'll make sure Mom gets some rest, Dr. Cohen. And Jack too." Julie replied, giving Natalie a close hug as the doctor left the room.

* * *

At 6:00 AM, Leland called Randy and Sharona and let them know what had happened. He wanted to run down any information that they could on whether or not there were any stolen Camrys near the last spot that Paulie had been seen, Aurora, Colorado. Randy called his team at the Summit New Jersey police department and asked them to research stolen vehicles of that description over the past week in Colorado, New Mexico and Texas. By 7:00 AM, Randy called Leland back with the information.

"Hey Randy, whatcha got?" asked Leland, who was now dressed for work and sipping on some freshly ground coffee that T.K. had made for him.

"Black Toyota Camry, Colorado License 53Z8YJ was taken from a shopping plaza about three blocks from the hotel that Monk was staying in on the day that Paulie disappeared. Vehicle had tinted windows and whitewall tires. Should be fairly easy to spot." Randy reported.

"That's just what I needed. Thank you, Captain." Said Stottlemeyer.

"No problem whatsoever, Commissioner." Randy replied. "What are you going to do? Monk is far out of San Francisco or Summit jurisdiction. What could we possibly do?"

Leland took his thumb and swiped it across his upper lip and mustache. He looked over at T.K. who was watching intently. "I need to talk to some folks, but there are some options that I'm thinking about. I'll let you know what avenue I take." He replied.

"Alright. Please keep us informed." Randy answered.

"Will do, friend." Leland replied, hanging up the phone.

He had no sooner hung up the phone when it rang again. It was Julie.

"Hello?" he answered.

"Hello, Leland, this is Julie again. Adrian's out of surgery and in recovery. "

'How did he do?" Leland asked.

As she explained his injuries to Stottlemeyer, the Commissioner marveled that Monk was still with them – but then reminded himself that it was in fact Adrian, the man who had overcome so many obstacles in his life. What's one more?

"Bless his heart. Did you ask if I'm able to come visit?" Leland asked.

"Yes. And right now, the answer is no. But in another day or so, if all goes well, they will move him to a private room, and you can come see him then." She replied.

"Alright. I will have my cell phone on me. I just spoke with Disher, had him run some information on Lasalle. I think he is definitely the guy, and I'll be pursuing some options I have on this end. Please, call us if you have any more news or need anything." He told her. "And tell your Mom, we love her."

"I will, Leland. Thank you." Julie said, hanging up.

"What options are you thinking about, Leland?" T.K. asked.

"I was just going to talk to you about that." Leland replied.

* * *

Natalie, Jack and Julie all entered Adrian's hospital room, apprehensive of what they were going to see when they entered the room. After such a traumatic and lengthy surgery, they expected him to look as one who was knocking on death's door. But, aside from the various tubes and wires surrounding his body, he looked like he was simply asleep. His color was much better than the last time they had seen him, and he was no longer intubated; but was being fed a steady stream of oxygen.

Natalie walked over, with tears running down her cheeks, leaned over and kissed him on the cheek. A single droplet fell from her face onto his face, which she then wiped away with her hands.

"Adrian, honey. It's me. If you can hear me, know that I'm here with you at the hospital and I'm not going anywhere…" she said softly. "You know how you always say, 'You'll thank me later?' Well…thank you. Thank you for staying, my love. And thank you for fighting…for us…for our kids. I love you darling. You have no idea how much. But I love you."

* * *

The Mayor of San Francisco stood as Police Commissioner Leland Stottlemeyer entered his office at around 8:30 AM.

"Leland. To what do I owe this pleasure?" he asked.

"Good morning, Mr. Mayor. I came because I need to talk to you about something that has happened and its' affect on the San Francisco Police Department." Leland said.

"Okay." The mayor responded inquisitively. "Please, sit down."

Leland took a seat. "It's Adrian Monk, sir. Someone tried to assassinate him with a motor vehicle."

"Oh, my word! That's awful!" replied the mayor. "Is he okay?"

"He's critical, but right now they expect he will pull through." Leland replied.

"That's good. But you said it would be something that would affect the SFPD. Monk no longer lives in San Francisco. Was there something else?" he asked.

"No. What happened to Monk is what I'm talking about. His attempted murderer, we believe, is a man named Paulie Lasalle." He replied.

"Ah yes. There is a manhunt out for him right now." The mayor said, recognizing the story.

"Yes. The blind leading the blind. Paulie stole a car from Colorado and has managed to drive it all the way to Texas without anyone so much as pulling him over for questioning. He used that vehicle to try to kill Monk and has probably ditched it for another one by now. I have no confidence that these guys are looking for him hard enough, and I want him." Leland responded.

"I doubt he will be in San Francisco anytime soon, Commissioner." The Mayor replied.

"I agree. But this thing is no longer local. Lasalle's crime spree now involves multiple states, and, I talked with Monk's superiors at the FBI this morning and his paperwork has gotten hung up in the processing. Technically, he's still a US Government employee. This thing is federal." Leland replied.

"And I suppose you don't think the feds can handle it?" The mayor responded.

"Let's say I have been less than impressed up to date." Leland replied.

"What do you want from me, Leland?" asked the mayor.

"I'd like to take some administrative leave to go pursue LaSalle. I spoke with the FBI and they are willing to give me a temporary deputies job to help with the case." Leland replied.

"I'm sorry, Leland. But you're far too valuable to San Francisco. I cannot provide you leave." The Mayor responded.

"I figured you would say as much." Stottlemeyer responded. He reached into his pocket and pulled out his badge and his SFPD ID and placed them on the mayor's desk.

"What is this?" the mayor asked.

"Sir, when I became a cop, I didn't want position or status or even money. I wanted one thing. I wanted to use my life to see that justice was served. I have grave concerns that this is not going to happen in this case involving my friend. As such, I'm letting you know that I'm resigning as Commissioner of the San Francisco Police and will be working with the FBI for the foreseeable future." Stottlemeyer announced.

"Leland. Surely you can't be serious? You've worked here for so long. You're just a few short years away from retirement." He responded.

"I understand. And, I've never been more serious." Leland replied.

The mayor said nothing for a moment, then answered. "You know if you give this up, you're giving up your dream job and you'll never get it back."

"Sir, that man would give his life for me and I would give mine for him. He's been my best friend for many years, and the best d #$ detective I've ever known – frankly, that anyone has ever known. This is something I have to do. This is personal." Leland replied.

"I understand. Very well then. Resignation accepted. It's been an honor to have worked with you all these years. I'm sorry you couldn't have been my commissioner longer. Best of luck, Leland." The mayor responded.

"Thank you, Sir. I'll need that and more." Leland replied.


	20. Chapter 20

_Author's Note: Thank you again to Alex Hoodle, KittyKat06, New Reader, Country2776, Dmander4483, TrixieDixie, Guests and Others for your reading and reviews. It means a great deal to get constructive feedback on the story as it progresses. Thank you for your suggestions as well. These characters are precious to all of us and I want to treat them respectfully and stay true to their essence. I consider this chapter to be a pivotal chapter in the story, as it fills out some of the background the the canon on the TV show. I hope you enjoy._

* * *

After much resistance, Natalie was finally persuaded by Julie and Jack to go lay down in one of beds that hospitals kept for visiting family members of intensive care patients. They did not expect that there would be any changes, but Jack stayed behind under strict orders that if anything were to happen, he would immediately go and wake Natalie up.

.

Physically exhausted, Jack could have easily slept if it weren't for the bevy of conflicting emotions swirling about him. As he watched Adrian's chest raise and lower in consistent rhythmic fashion, he felt so thankful to know he had survived and had done well throughout his surgery. He was heartbroken to see him so badly wounded. He was angry beyond anger at the man who had done this to him. And he was glad that not only was he able to be there for Natalie, but her daughter had flown in from Boston to be there with her as well. Yet, above all of these things, Jack's mind was plagued by one emotion, one feeling, that soon overshadowed the rest and became his nemesis. Guilt.

A barrage of 'should have dones' pelted his mind as he surveyed his interactions with Adrian from the time Adrian was a child until the moment he pulled out of that parking lot. He had been so obstinate, so hateful. Adrian tried to save him from marrying a very bad woman and what had he done? He had driven Adrian to the action that almost cost him his life.

The longer he sat there listening to the beep…beep…beep of the cardiac monitor and the sound of the machines which kept a steady read on his vital signs, the more his mind tormented him. Finally, when he could take more, he jumped up from the chair and went over by the window and began to weep. He wept bitterly, sobbing for every lost opportunity, for every lie, for every disappointment that he felt responsible for causing in this man's life. Oh, that it were him in that hospital bed. Oh, if only it were him on the side of that road. He deserved it, not his son.

After around twenty minutes, he turned around and looked at Adrian once again. With a sorrow saturated soul, he began to walk towards the bed as if mighty cords had wrapped themselves around his broken heart and were drawing him to be closer…closer to Adrian…closer to the truth.

Finally, he pulled up a chair right next to the bed and sat down. He placed both hands over his face and then drew them downward, leaving his tear-filled eyes as the only unhidden feature of his face. His hands dropped to his lap, and he bowed his head. After composing himself a moment more, he looked up at Adrian's sleeping face and began to speak.

"Adrian. I…I don't know if you can hear me. The doctor said you might be able to. But…in case you can…son, I want you to know…I'm sorry.

I'm sorry for arguing with you… I'm sorry for stomping out…you…you were just trying to protect a foolish old man from making a foolish mistake. I was wrong. I…I'm sorry I was so dismissive over your concerns. I'm sorry…that I lied to you…about the dog…about…the receipt…about..your life."

Adrian's face showed no evidence of understanding what was being said, and he just laid there still and restful as Jack Monk poured out the burdens of decades of regret before him.

"You deserve to know the truth. You deserve to know what happened, between your mother and I, between me and the family. So, I'm going to tell you.

When I met your mother, she was the most beautiful woman I had ever seen. She was charming, and graceful, and she..she smiled then. You didn't know your mother to smile that much, but I saw it. She had a beautiful smile. For me, it was love at first sight, you could say.

Her parents, your grandparents, didn't approve of my relationship with her and we almost didn't make it to the altar, but ultimately, they relented when she threatened to elope with me, and we got married. I guess there had been warning signs of what was to come, but I ignored them. I guess I was love-blind.

We moved in together and things began to change. She became cold and critical and she didn't smile nearly as much as when I was courting her. We began to fight…Constantly…battling and battling…fighting, over trivial things, over outright fantasies. She would accuse me of doing things I didn't. She accused me of cheating on her. She accused me of never loving her, but of using her. She played head games. At the time, divorce didn't seem to be an option. But, I was miserable and she was miserable. And things just continued to escalate.

I thought about leaving at that time. But, then, she became pregnant with your brother. And suddenly, things got better. He brought joy back into our house. He drew us both together. And, for a while…for about a year actually, it was good. Things were good. It was almost like when we were dating. She smiled again, which made me happy.

But then, one day, shortly after Ambrose turned one, I came home and she was on a rampage again. She smelled the smell of another woman's perfume on my shirt when I walked in the door and she immediately thought that I had been unfaithful to her. In reality, I had just dropped my latest stack of school books off to the publisher, right on time for a big deadline they had, and the publisher's wife who had to be in her sixties and was definitely not my type, she gave me a hug in appreciation for my diligence. That was all. I told your mother this, but she wouldn't believe me. She stopped speaking to me, and things became very quiet around our house.

This situation continued for several months, until finally, I was at my wit's end. I felt like a divorce was inevitable. I was losing my mind. But, I loved my son and I made plans of taking Ambrose and moving away.

I got a vasectomy in September 1958, not wanting to subject any more children to the agony that we had caused. I planned to leave her around Christmas time. But instead, I stayed. I stayed, and things improved. We began behaving civilly again. She wasn't smiling, but I didn't feel like an abject failure at marriage every time I entered the door either. And, well…we made up. And we made up big.

Around the middle of January 1959, after I had returned from a two-week trip to Pennsylvania, I came through the doors and there she was. She was smiling and she seemed genuinely excited to see me. She was wearing her hair back the way she used to wear it when we first got married. She had on makeup. She was beautiful without it, but now…wowza! She was a knockout. I know you don't want to hear about this part, but that was the night I believed you were conceived.

I went along, fat dumb and happy after that night. Life was good. A few weeks passed…life was not so good. She told me that she was expecting. At first, I was confused, but I had heard that sometimes those operations could fail, particularly when you…you know…do..things…close to the time of when you have the operation. You're supposed to always …um, protect…for several months. Anyway. You get my drift. I thought the thing failed, and thought…well, this is fate to keep us together. I was confused, but then I was happy.

When you were born, you were the most beautiful sight I had ever seen. I was out making some deliveries and had gotten word that your mother was in labor. So, I rushed to the hospital and.. and it's really pretty silly" he chuckled. "But I came right into the delivery room holding a balloon. Got there just in time to see you be born. They wouldn't let you do that sort of thing these days, but I did it. And there you were - head full of dark curly hair, observing every little thing in that room from the moment you entered the world.

The doctor, he picked you up and then held you up in the air while they tried to clean up around you..and you reached out that little pink hand and touched the shade of the surgical lamp that hovered right over the table! Next thing, he held you upside down and smacked you a couple of times on the bottom and you didn't like that…you didn't like that at all. But, soon, you were all wrapped up in a blanket being held by your mother and then by me, and all was well in the world. At least for the time being.

Your mother loved you. And I loved you. There was no doubt in my mind that you were my kid. None at all. You had my mannerisms, my dark hair, and we shared common interests. Your mother was by no means a stupid woman. Very smart. But I flattered myself in thinking that maybe you had gotten some of your smarts from your old man." He sighed. "How dumb was that? You outshine us all.

Anyway, time came and went and your mother grew emotionally distant once again. We didn't fight like we used to. We just went through several years where we didn't feel. She became obsessed with you kids and your lives. She ignored me. Sad to say, sometimes I took all that out on you and Ambrose. I got caught in this weird warp. On the one hand…I wanted and needed love, so I did everything I could to be a good dad to you boys, at least on the surface. I bonded with you. I loved you both. But then, I would do stupid stuff like try to tear you down, try to make you feel like nobody liked you. Make you feel like you were alone and a misfit that people talked about. I told Ambrose that I named him after a turtle. Shamed him by telling him he said stupid things. I think that's why he didn't talk much as a child. I was a bad father. But it wasn't because I didn't love you. I did. I just didn't deal with things very well.

Well…one day in 1967, I got this phone call. It was from your mother. I was at work and didn't want to be bothered, but she sounded frantic and told me that you and Ambrose had gone out into the back yard and that she couldn't find you and that Ambrose wasn't talking. I closed what I was doing right there and rushed home. I walked in the door and there she was, with that stupid receipt in her hand, waving it around. She demanded to know what it was about, and we got into an awful argument. We both said mean, hurtful things. You and Ambrose really were out in the back yard working on some project for school, so you couldn't have heard it. I'm glad you didn't. But, the argument ended when she told me that she figured that you weren't mine anyway, and she claimed to have had an affair while I was in Pennsylvania. Claimed it was a vacuum cleaner salesman.

Now, you may not know this about your Mom, I don't know why you would, but you get your germaphobia from her – though she tried to keep it well hidden. I wouldn't believe for a second that she _actually _had an affair. She would get someone else's cooties. It was just another one of her head games that she would play when she got stressed.

I knew you were my son. I still know you're mine. But, that day, I was done. She walked out of the room and called you boys into the house, and then ordered me to go pick up some Chinese food. It was the most difficult thing I ever did in my whole life, particularly as I watched you waving at me as I drove away. But, I knew that she loved you and would take care of you and felt like you would have a better shot at life if I just left. It is my single greatest regret. And I'm sorry.

I…I know you may be wondering about Jack Jr. That's simple. Darlene and I got together, and she wanted to have kids. We seemed to be having trouble, so I figured that the vasectomy wasn't a total failure after all, and I went in and got it reversed. Boom! There was your other brother.

And so…that's the story…that's the story I never told you. I…lied to you about the dog…and before that, about the fortune cookie. I didn't want you to blame your mother. She loved you as much as she ever loved anyone, and I think she just had some sort of sickness. Someone once told me she was had a schizoid personality, and a lot of that fits, but she could also be tender and loving. So, I figured she just didn't love me.

Anyway…I guess I'm telling you all this because you deserve to know. Heck, you may not even remember it when you wake up. In a way, I hope you don't. But…I want to make things right between us. Whatever that stupid test might say, I know…you are my son. And I love you, Adrian. I always have. And you want me to take the test, so I'll do it. For you. But regardless what it says, I want you to know that your old man is sorry for my stupid decisions and if I could turn back time…I would have stayed and stuck it out. You kids were the highlight of my life, and I always had this empty spot without you being in it. The wound that wouldn't heal. I don't want you going through life that way. Not on account of my sorry self. I'll take the test. And then, I'll accept whatever you decide to do afterwards. I owe you that much."

When he had finished, Jack Monk leaned over and took Adrian by the hand. He straightened out the collar of Adrian's hospital gown and then gently patted him on the shoulder. Emotionally drained, he then laid his head next to Adrian's hand on the bed and began crying some more. His crying stopped when he felt the faint movement of Adrian's hand gently squeezing his own. He sat up and looked at Adrian's face, but there was no more sign of activity for the rest of the night. But, it was enough.

.

When Natalie was done from her nap, she came back into the room and took up a position beside Adrian's bed, and Jack Monk went home for a nap, shower, shave and to go mail his saliva sample, just as he should have done all along.


	21. Chapter 21

_Authors Note; Again, many thanks for your kind reviews. This chapter continues to follow Adrian's recovery as well as Stottlemeyer's ventures. I figured after so many serious chapters, we needed a little levity. If you read the stories of people who have come out of induced comas, they can be pretty wild. So, I figured why should our dashing detective be any different? Enjoy the calm before the final storm._

* * *

Leland Stottlemeyer marched into the FBI's San Francisco field offices like a military general inspecting his troops before a big battle. He didn't hesitate to drop names, all the way up to and including President John Stoddard himself, in order to get access to the people that he needed to speak to in order to get the information he needed to know. He hadn't quit his job at the San Francisco Police to become someone's deputy, but neither did he immediately believe that he would be leading the investigation. He simply wanted to evaluate what they were doing and how diligently they were doing it.

What he found was a typical government bureaucracy, tied up with a pretty bow made of red tape and a lack of ownership. In their defense, each worker had a stack of case files on his or her desk, so Paulie was just one dangerous criminal out of hundreds that were a priority. But, from Stottlemeyer's point of view, the threat towards his friend's life was imminent and could not be ignored. This would not do.

He marched into the San Francisco director's office, and demanded an audience. Time was of the essence and he was not going to take no for an answer. He got that audience, and then shared with the director the fruits of his short evaluation of their efforts and what they should be doing that they weren't already doing. Partially because he was impressed, and partially because he needed to meet with some dignitaries later that afternoon and wanted Stottlemeyer out of his office, the director relented and put him in charge of the whole investigation on the California side of things.

In this role, he would direct field agents in California and Nevada in their search for information on Paulie's whereabouts. He would also work closely with the Denver and El Paso teams, who were a bit more eager to solve the case seeing that Colorado is the group that lost him in the first place and that Texas was the back yard that he was currently presumed to be playing in. The Lasalle family had many connections West of the Mississippi, and more than a few East. He was bound to talk to someone, and when he did, Stottlemeyer, now a federal agent, had full authority to neutralize Paulie as a threat, dead or alive.

By the afternoon of the second day, Leland had secured a warrant and had set up surveillance on all of Paulie's relatives and known associates. He also sent two undercover officers into the prison system in hopes that they could get Frank or Leroy to talk. Finally, he secured 24/7 security around Adrian Monk and his family, at the hospital and at home. It was a drill that Natalie was somewhat used to, given their recent dealings with Washington, but it was new to Jack and to Ambrose, who had arrived with Heather during the evening of Adrian's first full day in the hospital.

* * *

In Midland, Adrian Monk's condition continued to improve. The family took turns keeping watch over him. He was moved to a private room near the ICU on day two but was still heavily sedated. The doctor had indicated that due to Monk's sensitive metabolic nature when it came to controlled substances, he had actually had to use far less of the barbiturate in order to put him under than normal. This was to their favor, because it allowed him to maintain respiratory function on his own without having to be intubated, as was the norm, while still depressing his cognitive faculties to the point that it was allowing his body to rest.

* * *

By day three, the doctor walked into the room with the hospital's chief surgeon and did an extensive assessment of where Monk stood. Vitals were strong. No sign of an additional bleeding. Blood pressure was good. Heart strong. Breathing steady. No evidence of any brain swelling. Reflexes were great. Satisfied by his numbers, the two doctors agreed on a treatment plan and Dr. Cohen called the family together to prepare them for the next steps.

As Natalie, Jack and Ambrose sat together in the Doctor's office, Cohen explained.

"I've spoken with our Chief Surgeon, Evelyn Sarturo about Adrian's condition and we are in agreement that it's time to start backing him out of the coma." He said.

There was a collective sigh of relief in the room when he said it, reminding each of the Monks of the amount of stress they were all under, but also underscoring the fact that they were in it together.

"Now, I need to warn you, it may take him several days to actually wake up and be back to his normal self. He may go in and out of consciousness for a while. As I mentioned before, induced patients also have a tendency to say and do some crazy things. He may be combative, or he may just say things completely out of character. My patients say that they can have nightmares while asleep, as they are trying to make sense of a world that surrounds them that they can oft times hear but not see. He may be happy. He may be angry. Everyone is different.

Assume he can hear everything and be careful what you say or listen to in his presence. For instance, a family member of a patient of mine was watching the nightly news. The patient heard, in his sleep, a crime report on the television about a kidnapping and because of his own restraints, felt like he was part of a larger kidnapping plot and tha some of our nurses were his captors. So... just know he will be disoriented. He may hallucinate. As I think I told you before, just ride it out, play along and try to keep him from being upset , and he should be back to normal quickly."

* * *

On day four, Adrian's medication had been reduced by half. There was still no sign of him waking up. The doctor indicated that this was normal, so the family continued to keep watch.

Peggy and Bobby Davenport surprised Natalie by bringing Lee and Abby to come see their mother, which made all the difference in the world to Natalie. She had missed them so much. It felt horrible to be without them. So, they stayed with her most of the day, and they even let them stay in Monk's room for a few hours hoping that the sound of the babies playing would start to rouse him. He slept on.

* * *

Day five was a milestone day.

There was a lot of time to pass and so the family spent it either talking or reading or watching television. Despite the circumstances, it was a good time for the Davenports and Monks to get to know each other.

Ambrose and Heather, Peggy and Bobby, Natalie, Jack and Julie all gathered in Adrian's room and began to reminisce. What began as a general discussion of their own life stories, turned into a talk about Adrian and Natalie and their lives before they met.

"Was Adrian always a Brainiac?" asked Julie.

"Oh yes. Yes. From an infant. You know, he was working complex puzzles before he was able to walk, and talking in complete sentences by 12 months, and that kid…he studied everything. Memory like an elephant. Could never pull one over on him." Jack Monk remembered.

"Yeah, and he always had a serious side to him. Even as a baby. Dad, remember when he alphabetized the bills?" Ambrose said.

"Oh yeah. Your mother had things laid out in chronological order according to when things needed to be paid." Jack said.

"But Adrian wanted it in alphabetical order instead, so he pulled up a chair to the table, sat down and began sorting." Ambrose recalled.

"He was two years old." Jack added.

"Actually, he was twenty-three months." Ambrose corrected.

"What difference does it make? Two? Twenty-three months?" Jack asked.

"It makes a big difference as to accuracy." Ambrose replied. "A lot happens in a month of a baby's life."

Jack threw his hands up and acquiesced.

"He was a good kid. Sweet. Tenderhearted." Jack recalled.

"What was Mom like, grandma?" asked Julie.

"Ohhhh.., cheerful. And an extrovert. She always had an independent streak but also showed care and compassion from an early age, rather like you." Peggy said.

"And, she smiled a lot. She was always our little cheerleader." Bobby responded.

"When she wasn't defying us." Peggy added.

Natalie rolled her eyes.

"Was she always so touchy feely?" asked Ambrose.

"I'm not touchy feely!" Natalie said, punching Ambrose in the arm and laughing.

"You are too!" Julie exclaimed.

"Am not!" Natalie replied.

"Well you were with Adrian. You were always looking for excuses to touch him. Putting your arm on his back or looped around his arm, hugging him, _kissing _him on the cheek, rubbing his bicep. I never saw you doing that with Leland or Randy or anyone else for that matter while I was growing up." Julie said.

From the bed came the first signs of consciousness. "She wanted me." Adrian stated, voice faint and raspy and eyes still closed with a slight smile on his face.

The whole group stopped their conversation and turned to him.

"Adrian, honey? Can you hear us?" Natalie said, running to his side with excitement. There was no response.

"I'll go get the doctor." Said Ambrose, running out the door, as the family all tried to get him to say something else.

Dr. Cohen came into the room and checked some numbers. "He's getting there." He said. "Should be soon. Just keep doing what you're doing."

* * *

On day six, he opened his eyes for the first time and looked around the room. Spotting Natalie, he looked at her with a look of urgency and weakly lifted his arms, motioning for her to come near.

He tried raising one arm towards her but was too weak, so he simply spoke.

"Watch out for the snake lady. She says she won't hurt you, but she carries a snake and it will bite you." He warned before again losing consciousness.

Talking to the medical staff, she later discovered that this 'snake lady' had been mentioned several times before by critical care patients and best they could figure it was the patient's way of describing the nurse who inserted the intravenous line into his arms. It made sense, and it helped her to relax knowing he was having no trouble perceiving his world and communicating – albeit with some distortions.

* * *

On day 7, Stottlemeyer made his way to the hospital for the first time. They had several leads on Paulie and were closing in. Leland had kept regular tabs on Adrian via telephone and Natalie was not happy that he quit his job for the case, but she was happy that he was on it. Now, with things rolling relatively smoothly, he took time to visit in person before his afternoon appointment with the El Paso field officer. Expecting that he was going to walk into a quiet somber atmosphere, he was surprised when he found chaos.

Jack was talking to one of the floor nurses and Julie and Heather were trying to get Ambrose to calm down.

"I'm sorry! I screwed up!" Ambrose said. "It's my fault!"

"It's no big deal Ambrose, the doctor said this was normal." Julie replied.

"I only watched one episode. Who knew that he'd do this?" Ambrose responded.

"It's okay. Really." Julie answered.

Leland walked towards the room and was about to ask what was going on when Natalie came out of the room trying not to laugh. It was of no use. She let out a loud cackle. Adrian heard this and responded. "What is wrong with you, Uhura? I said to go get Bones! Now go!" he barked from his bed.

Natalie saw Leland and a broad smile adorned her face. Running up to him she gave him a huge hug.

"I take it he's awake?" he asked.

"In a manner of speaking." She replied. "Ambrose forgot that coma patients sometimes get rather confused, particularly when they are coming out of sedation. He was watching an episode of Star Trek in Adrian's room when Adrian woke up thinking he's Captain Kirk trying to save the world from an attack of a fleet arriving from the Andromeda galaxy."

"Do what!? This, I have to see!" Leland said, amuzed.

"Come on in. Doctor says to play along so he doesnt get upset. He'll get back to normal soon." She replied.

They walked into the room and Adrian was sitting up, looking around as if he saw things that they could not. Seeing Leland, he squinted.

"Ah. Mr. Spock. You dyed your hair? Looks good." He started. Leland looked over at Natalie, raised his eyebrows and smirked.

"How are you doing, Captain?" he asked, walking by Adrian's side.

"I'm doing better. The effects of Khan's poisoning have left me rather tired. I've asked Uhura to get Bones. I'm glad you're here though. I have been calling for Scotty and Sulu but there is no answer. There is a fleet from the Andromeda galaxy coming to destroy the Enterprise. I'm planning an escape route. I'm thinking maybe we could move the ship over near this planet over here," he said, pointing to an imaginary point on an imaginary map that was part of his hallicination.

Leland looked at his friend and grinned. This would be the only time in his life that he would see Monk in this sort of shape and he was enjoying the show. "Sounds logical." He replied.

"Excellent! Uhura, you're back! Where is Bones?" he said, seeing Natalie.

"Captain, Dr. Bones says you need to lay down and get more rest. You are not well." She replied.

"But the fleet?" he said.

"I will handle them, Captain." Said Stottlemeyer with a wink towards Natalie, as she gently laid him back down and took the imaginary map out of his hand.

"Now go back to sleep, my handsome one." She said, kissing him on the forehead.

"Uhura!" he said surprised. "Protocol!"

Laying his head on the pillow, it was just a few seconds and he was out again.

Natalie took Leland back out into the lobby and let Ambrose know that the crisis was over, and then she sat down and had a good long talk with their friend from San Francisco .

* * *

That evening, everything was peaceful. The doctor proclaimed that barring any reinjury, Adrian was out of the woods physically.

Because of what he expected would be several more days of bed rest, he ordered that physical therapy would begin as soon as Adrian's mind cleared from its delirium. Natalie now had moved into the hospital and Jack and Julie went home. Ambrose and Heather stayed with Jack, and Peggy and Bobby moved into a hotel with the children. All was peaceful. But. With Paulie LaSalle still on the loose, each person feared that this peace would be short lived.


	22. Chapter 22

Leland Stottlemeyer's meeting with El Paso FBI chief Dale Kissinger went about how he expected it would. Kissinger was a veteran G-Man of over 30 years and was none too happy about Stottlemeyer's interjecting himself into the Texas arena. But Leland stood his ground, insisting that he was there to work with Kissinger if possible and around him if necessary.

After nearly an hour of back and forth concerning jurisdiction and the difference between Federal Criminal Justice versus big city justice, Kissinger called a truce and agreed to cooperate.

* * *

What they knew thus far is what Paulie had indeed ditched the second car, about 3 blocks from Jack Monk's house. A man matching his description was seen walking into a diner in downtown Midland about an hour later, and no other cars were reported missing and there were no reported car-jackings. The conclusion that the El Paso team drew, therefore was that he was still in the Midland area.

Leland agreed that this was a strong possibility but did not rule out that he had left the area since he undoubtedly felt that he had accomplished his goal when he hit Monk. He strongly urged for radio silence to the press about Monk's real condition, lest Paulie realize that he failed and return to finish the job.

* * *

Back at the hospital, Dr. Cohen chuckled when he heard about Adrian's activity, but also took that as his opportunity to start more actively weening him off all medication.

"Since he has done so well, I'm going to start dropping his dosage by half each time it is due. By tomorrow evening, that means that he should be narcotic free. Clearly it causes a reaction in him, and while I appreciate the revelation that there is nothing wrong with his ability to speak, see, hear, or think…commanding the Starship Enterprise is a little more excitement than I want him to experience right now." He said.

"Right." Natalie agreed. "When do you think he'll be..normal, or at least normal for Adrian again?"

"That's not something that I can predict for sure, but if I had to guess, I would suppose that you would start to see glimpses of your husband as early as tonight." He replied.

And, he was right.

* * *

Natalie stayed with Adrian throughout the night, watching, waiting, and occasionally falling asleep in her chair. On one such occasion, while she was asleep, Adrian opened his eyes. It was dark outside and the only light in the room was a small overhead light on the wall behind him. He looked around, trying to get his bearings, and then turned his head, spotting Natalie sleeping upright in the chair, her legs drawn up towards her chest and her head at an angle that he was sure would give her a stiff neck.

He tried to speak, but his voice had little strength as did he. He tried to sit up, but he couldn't support his frame. But finally, he managed to reach out and touch the television remote. With all the strength he could muster, he pushed it with his fingers until it slipped off the bed and went crashing to the floor.

Natalie jumped, and looked at the ground and then up at him. His eyes were open and he was smiling at her, reaching out his hand towards her.

Natalie teared up and smiled back. "Well, hello there." She said, reaching forward and stroking his face.

He closed his eyes and whispered "Hi, beautiful."

Taking his hand, she said, "I didn't know you were awake. Are you feeling okay?"

"Only like I got hit by a car." He remarked, closing his eyes. "How long…?"

She stood up and went to a small refrigerator that they had in the room, pulling out a bottle of Summit Creek water. "How long have you been out?" she asked. Taking a fresh Dixie cup, she filled it about half full and then went over beside him and helped support his head and upper back as he took his first sip of water in 7 days.

"You've been out for a week." She replied.

"A week? I don't remember. And, you've been here the whole time?" he asked.

"Would you expect me to be anyplace else?" She replied, touching his hand. "Adrian, you've been very sick. I was terrified I was going to lose you. You called out for…Trudy. I was afraid you were gone…I...I was afraid that she had taken you back and…" she couldn't bear revisiting the scene and started crying, and laid her head beside his hand on the bed.

He caressed her hair. "I remember seeing Trudy. She looked lovely. But, Natalie, this time was different." He said, as she looked up. He laboriously lifted his arm and wiped her tears. "When she died, Trudy left this huge hole in my heart. When I saw her this time though, I no longer felt that loss. I realized that it's because the hole is no longer there. It's been filled by you." He said, taking her hand. "Part of me will always love Trudy, deeply, just like I'm sure you love Mitch. But, I told her that I wanted to be with you."

Tears flowed down her face and she leaned up and gave him a gentle kiss on the lips. "I love you so much, Adrian Monk."

He smiled weakly and said "I love you more." Then invited her to curl up in the bed next to him. Most of the wires were gone, though he was still on an IV and was attached to a heart and blood pressure monitor, so they had to navigate around that. But she carefully climbed up into his bed and laid on her side next to him with her head on his pillow, and things suddenly felt right again. They were both where they needed to be.

* * *

Jack Monk and Ambrose sat together in Jack's small living room and attempted to make small talk. Since Jack first reached out on the Halloween evening almost eleven years prior, Ambrose could count on one hand the number of times he had actually seen his father in person. They talked a little on the telephone at times, mostly ten minute conversations around holidays. Jack and Ambrose would tell each other the latest happenings in their lives. But, truthfully, the connection had still not been restored between father and son. Ambrose told himself that it was okay, but it really wasn't. How does one erase fifty years of absenteeism and how can one restore what had been lost for so long.

It would be an understatement to say that their meeting was awkward. For the first fifteen minutes, Ambrose sat on Jack's couch, semi-frozen with a stiff smile on his face.

Jack broke the ice.

"So, I hear you've put a bun in the oven?" he said.

"No. I'm not baking anything." Ambrose replied, confused.

Jack looked at him then explained, "No. Not a physical bun. A kid. I heard you and Heather, you're having a kid. Congratulations,son! Kids. They're a great addition to your life."

This was the comment that ripped the bandaid off of a very old wound.

"Is that why you abandoned yours?" Ambrose replied with uncharacteristic boldness.

Jack looked up at him. "Touché" he responded.

"I waited for you. Every night. I would set a place setting, thinking that this would be the night that you would come walking through that door." Ambrose said. "Adrian said I was being foolish. But I thought he was just too impatient. Now, I think, perhaps he was right."

"You're upset. It's understandable. Let's talk about it later. We've both had a hard week." Jack said, standing and turning towards the kitchen.

"NO!" Ambrose shouted. "I'm not letting you walk away from this, the way you walked away from your family! You and I are going to deal with this man to man, right now."

Jack turned around and sat back down. "Alright Ambrose. I deserve everything you can give me. Let it out."

Ambrose clinched his jaw as 50 years worth of suppressed anger began to bubble to the surface and escape in a torrent of tears and words. "Do you know I blamed myself? I thought that you left the family because you couldn't deal with me and my problems. I even blamed myself after you showed up that Halloween and I wasn't there."

"You were in an ambulance on the way to the hospital." Jack noted.

"I know. But I still blamed myself. I..I guess it was easier to do that than to believe your father never loved you." Ambrose replied.

"Ambrose, you know that's not true." Jack answered.

"Do I? DO I DAD? What sort of loving father takes off for Chinese food and leaves his wife and children? Huh? Tell me, dad? Because that sort of love doesn't compute. " Ambrose snapped.

"Ambrose. It wasn't like that. Your mother and I, we had problems." He replied.

"Big enough problems to rob your children of their childhood? Big enough to make them feel stupid and unwanted and unworthy of love? Dad! Your leaving our home had a profound effect on nearly every aspect of our lives. You have no idea the damage you did. Mom struggled with depression and anxiety the rest of her life. It is ultimately what killed her. Adrian pushed passed some of it, but still you made an 8 year old kid have to become the primary caretaker in the house, and for what? You couldn't deal with some issue between you and Mom?" Ambrose raged.

"Ambrose. You don't have all of the pieces. You don't understand. Things were horrible between your mom and me and, well I thought you kids would be better off." He answered.

"Better off? Dad, we needed you. We needed our father and you weren't there." Ambrose said.

"I am now." Jack replied to Ambrose's stony silence. "Listen. I was a horrible father, a horrible person. I did incalculable damage to you and Adrian's feeling of self worth. I can't fix that. I acknowledge I was wrong. But, I can't go back and fix it. But I can be a father to you now." He replied.

Ambrose just stared at him.

"Ambrose. I don't know what more I can say. Talk to me." Jack implored.

With flattened expression, Ambrose said "You know, I almost hope Adrian isn't your son. I almost think it would make things easier. At least for him. I still have to live with the fact that you are my father."

"Is that what you want, Ambrose? Do you just want me to go away again? I can accommodate that. I will put you and Heather up in the finest hotel that Midland has to offer, and you can leave here and never see me again. Is that what you want? He asked.

Ambrose thought for a moment. "I don't know what I want."

"Alright. How's about this. I will book a room for you and you can think it over. Gives you a little space. I left you boys on my terms. I stay only on your terms. Sound okay?" Jack asked.

Ambrose was quiet, and then looked up. "Space to think is good. And you're right about this, almost losing my brother has definitely been traumatizing. You don't have to pay for anything. I will get Heather and our bags and move over to the hotel. Spend some time with my niece and nephew."

"That's good. You do that. And, if you decide that you can leave the unchangeable past where it is, call me. This time, I will be here. I won't run away." Jack concluded.


	23. Chapter 23

Dr. Cohen came into Adrian's bedroom on his morning rounds to find the patient and his wife still sleeping comfortably. A nurse had checked on Adrian through the night, but neither Monk woke up. For Natalie, it was the first peaceful night's sleep she had experienced in over a week. Nevertheless, the doctor needed to wake them in order to see how Adrian was truly doing on greatly reduced medication.

"Mr. Monk. Natalie." Cohen said, shaking Natalie by the arm, ever so gently. "I need you to wake up.

Natalie rolled over onto her back and yawned, then looked over to Adrian who still had his eyes shut but was starting to rouse.

"Hello, Mrs. Monk. I gather that he is awake and alert." Cohen said.

"Yes, Doctor." She replied, sitting up and scooting out of bed. She shook Adrian gently. "Honey, the doctor is here to see you."

"And I'm not Doctor Bones." Said Cohen cracking a joke.

Adrian opened one eye. "What is he talking about?" he asked, his voice much stronger than the night before.

"Nevermind. Mr. Monk, I am doctor Philip Cohen. I am your surgeon and the doctor following your case. Do you know what today is?" he asked.

Adrian thought, if yesterday had been seven days, then today must be "Friday." He replied.

"Yes. You're right. That's excellent. I'm going to raise your bed a little bit if you don't mind. If this hurts at all let me know. Your incision is still likely very tender." He instructed him.

"My incision?" Adrian asked.

"Yes. From your operation. When you came in you had a ruptured spleen. We couldn't get the bleeding to stop so we had to remove it." Cohen replied, raising the bed.

Adrian turned his head and looked at Natalie. "You didn't say they started removing body parts!"

"Well, the subject didn't come up." She replied.

"Don't you think that's important to know? They didn't remove anything else did they?" he said looking at his fingers and feeling around his face to make sure everything else was still there, then began to lift the sheet. She pushed his hand back down.

"No sir, we didn't remove anything else." The doctor answered, explaining the shape he was in and what they had done to save his life.

"But, I can live a full life without a spleen, right?" Adrian asked.

"Yes sir. You may have a bit of a suppressed immunity…" Cohen replied.

Adrian turned his head and looked at Natalie again, with an insistent look in his eyes. "Wipe! Wipe! Wipe!" he barked.

She dutifully went over to her purse and pulled out a package of wipes and handed one to him.

"Doctor, how long before he gets his strength back? He seemed fine yesterday when…well, he was out of it…but last night, he could barely lift his arms." She said.

Cohen continued examining him, "that's perfectly normal. Even for the short time Adrian was out, there has been some muscle atrophy that he'll have to work to overcome. His little flight yesterday probably sapped what strength he had."

"My flight? What are you all talking about? What happened yesterday?" Adrian asked, looking back and forth between Natalie and Cohen.

Natalie smiled. "Nothing you need to worry about. Just worry about getting better and I will tell you all about it later."

Dr. Cohen listened to Adrian's heart but kept his eyes on Adrian's face. "Heart sounds good. Lungs are at full capacity as well. Things are good." He said, leaning forward and snapping his fingers next to Adrian's ears.

Adrian turned his head to see what the doctor was doing, and Cohen took him by the chin and told him to face forward.

Holding one finger up he asked, "how many fingers do you see?"

"One." Adrian said.

"Good." Said Cohen.

He shut his fist and then moved it a little to Adrian's right. Now, he raised two fingers. "How many now?" he asked.

Adrian stared straight ahead "Two."

The doctor moved even further and raised a single finger. "How many now?"

Adrian looked ahead and swallowed. "One." He replied.

"Great. Now, I want you to follow my finger." He said, quickly moving his finger across Adrian's field of vision. Adrian's eye movements were slightly but noticeably delayed in following the doctors finger.

"I will do it slower this time." The doctor said, with the same result, a slight lag.

Natalie looked at the doctor and then at Adrian.

Cohen then took a retinascope out of his pocket and began looking into Adrian's eyes.

"What's wrong?" Natalie asked.

Cohen looked concerned but not alarmed. "Any vision problems prior to the attack?"

Adrian answered, "I was blinded entirely by acid once before."

Cohen looked up at Natalie. "Is that true?"

She nodded.

"Well, I'm not seeing any retinal scarring or any physical defects. But, I am a little concerned with how Adrian follows motion. I would like to get an MRI of Adrian's brain and would like to have him see the neuro-optometrist before we put him through anything too strenuous. It's possible the konk on the back of the head did some damage that we weren't aware of."

"Oh no." Natalie said.

"Don't panic yet. If it is what I'm thinking, it may be temporary. I just don't want to take any chances." Cohen replied.

* * *

Later that afternoon, Ambrose arrived just as Cohen returned with Adrian's test results.

"Hi, Dr. Cohen." Natalie said as he entered the room. "This is Adrian's brother, Ambrose."

"Pleased to meet you, Ambrose. " Cohen said, shaking his hand.

"Well?" Adrian asked, anxious for the news.

"Well…I have good news and bad news. Which do you want first?" he asked.

"Why do people always ask that?" Adrian whined. "Especially when they know that you're anxious to hear something specific."

"We'll take the good news." Natalie interjected, talking over her impatient husband.

"Okay. Good news is there is no damage to the optic nerve and, from everything we can tell, no permanent damage to the neural pathway. We do see where Adrian is suffering from a mild to moderate Oculomotor dysfunction." Cohen replied.

"A what?" asked Natalie.

"Oculomotor dysfunction. Takes several forms. In your case, Adrian, it means that your eyes are slow to track moving objects. There are therapies for this that are 90-100% successful in patients with mild to moderate traumatic brain injury. Since you are on the mild side, your body having taken the brunt of the blow, if we get you started right away, your vision may essentially be back to normal in a few months." Cohen replied.

"Months?" asked Adrian.

"Unfortunately, yes. It takes time to heal when you have experienced trauma as you have. I'm going to make arrangements for you to go to Spaulding in Boston. It's been acknowledged as one of the best physical rehabilitation centers in the country and it also has vision rehab." Cohen replied.

"That's good. It's close to Julie. What's the bad news?" Ambrose asked.

"I have to take Adrian's drivers license away." he replied.

"What? Why?" Adrian asked.

"If you can't track objects real time it puts you and others at risk." Said Cohen. "Mrs. Monk will have to cart you around wherever you go."

Adrian looked at him, then smiled towards Natalie. "That's the bad news?"

She smiled back and took him by the hand. "This, I can do." Natalie said, breathing a sigh of relief that it wasn't worse news and secretly enjoying the fact that she would be back in her familiar spot next to him at the wheel.

"I figured you could." The doctor winked. "I'll call for an orderly to come up here in a few minutes and we're going to take you down to the hospital's rehab center to try get those muscles going again. Don't get discouraged if this takes a few weeks to get all your strength back. You're doing great." Cohen said, setting down his chart and leaving the room.

* * *

Twenty minutes later, Adrian was struggling at some parallel bars, trying to just to hold his own weight up. "I'm not doing great! It's only been a week. What's the matter with me?" he complained. He was able to stand and walk but the weakness he felt was profound.

"Mr. Monk, you're doing fine. You're getting over a whole lot of trauma that hit your body all at once. You've lost about 15% of your muscle mass." The therapist said.

"In a week?" he asked.

"Yes. It looks like you were in pretty good shape before the accident, so it shouldn't take a long time until you start feeling better. Now, I want to get you to sit over there and we're going to try you on some free weights."

* * *

On Monday morning, as Leland Stottlemeyer was visiting Monk before heading to the airport to go back home, he got a phone call from the El Paso office.

"Hey Leland. We may have good news on the case." Said Kissinger.

"I like good news. What is it?" he asked.

"We've found a body. Just outside of Midland by the side of the road. He had Paulie Lasalle's identification on him." Kissinger replied.

"Really?" Leland asked."Lasalle's body?"

Adrian and Natalie looked towards Leland.

"Yeah. They have him down at the morgue. Looks like someone got to him before we did. He was pretty bloodied and bruised. Was wondering if you wanted to stop down to take a look." He asked.

Leland looked over at Monk. "Yeah. I can spare a few minutes. My flight doesn't leave until this afternoon."

He hung up the phone. "It sounds like Paulie Lasalle may be dead!"

"What?!" Adrian and Natalie said in unison.

"Yeah, the El Paso FBI chief wants me to go check out the body." He said.

"I want to go too." Natalie said. "I want to make sure that the man who tried to kill my husband is gone." She said.

Leland nodded, understanding that when Natalie was determined, there would be no stopping her.

* * *

As they entered the room, a man of Paulie's general height and weight sat bruised and battered on the exam table, a thick gash across his head.

The coroner stood next to the body in a white lab coat, holding a bag with the man's personal belongings. He handed the items to Leland.

"Victim appears to have died from injuries following some sort of blunt force trauma to the head." The coroner said.

"Was he in some sort of accident?" Stottlemeyer asked.

"No. These marks were made by a human or humans. It was definitely homicide." The man replied.

Leland looked closely but swelling and bruising made it difficult to tell.

"It looks like it _could_ be him. He was about that size. But, I don't know…" said Leland.

Natalie got close to the corpses' face, and noticed a small tattoo on his neck. She directed the coroner to open the man's eyes.

The coroner moved forward and slowly opened the man's swollen eyes. His eye color was dark brown.

"Not him." She said. "Paulie has amber eyes."

Leland shook his head is disappointed acknowledgement. "She's right. Very unusual shade. This is definitely not the guy."

"But, I have seen him before." She stated, with narrowed eyes.

"You have?" asked Leland.

"Yeah, somewhere in town. Maybe at the diner, or one of the boutiq….no! I know where I saw him. He gave me and JoAnn er...Jillian... a massage downtown about a week ago." She replied.

"Do you have a name?" asked the coroner.

She closed her eyes and tried to recall. "Ruben…no…Raoul…Ramon! Ramon Pontero He worked at the day spa at Midland Plaza."

"And, I'll be he's the one who tipped Paulie off about Monk's whereabouts." Leland said.

"Good riddance." Natalie replied.

"For sure. We need to find out where this guy lived. My guess is that Paulie is now traveling around in his car and passing himself off as Pontero. He could be anywhere. I'll phone it in." Leland concluded.

* * *

Back at the hospital, Adrian and Ambrose were able to have a little brother to brother time.

"I wonder where Jack is?" asked Adrian.

"He probably won't come." Ambrose replied.

"Listen to you! I was usually the naysayer. Now you sound like me." Adrian replied.

"No. He won't come because of _me_." He answered.

"Ambro…"

"Not like that, Adrian. I confronted him. I confronted him over his years of neglect which have continued even until today. When we left it, he was going to stay out of my life as long as I wanted him to. I wouldn't expect him here today." Ambrose explained.

"I'm glad you spoke your mind. That's been a long time coming. But, Ambrose, he's our father." Adrian said.

"Our? I thought you didn't think he was your father." Ambrose replied.

Adrian looked around. "I don't know. Biologically speaking. But, the guy did raise me for eight years, and you for ten. And…while I was sleeping, he told me some things. I could hear what he was saying, and I remember. It makes more sense now. Things with him and mom…"

"Yeah, he tried to blame it on mom." Ambrose said.

"Not with me. He took full responsibility, although with the goal of helping me to understand. Ambrose, we were never really willing to admit it – I guess because for us it was the norm – but Mom suffered from mental illness." Adrian said.

"Due to him." Ambrose countered.

"No. Before that. She was highly functional, but the depression and anxiety were just part of a broader spectrum of symptoms. He said that someone told him that she might have been schizoid. Maybe she was borderline, with those tendencies, I don't know. But she suffered with it, and we didn't know enough to help her." Adrian said.

"This is our mother you're talking about!" Ambrose said, becoming angry.

"I know it is. I know. It's not easy to hear or even think about. You and I both know that she loved us. But showing affection was not her strong suit. And, she had a lot of…I guess…fears concerning us, and life. She kept us largely isolated as kids. Then you started staying home altogether." He said.

"She said it was a bad world out there." Ambrose replied.

"And it is. But that's not normal. Parents try to prepare their kids to survive in that bad world, not stay out of it. She would take me to school, even into my teens, and encouraged me to stay away from most kids." Adrian said.

"Yeah, but you were a daredevil." Ambrose said.

"I don't know about that. But, I did want friends. I didn't have many. Part of that was conditioning, I'm convinced. Conditioning from Mom, and Jack to some extent. If we had realized at the time, we probably should have gotten her some help. She clearly had a side that was loving…but, I guess we all did the best we could do." He said.

Ambrose looked down. He hadn't thought of his mom as having mental illness, but it made sense.

"Just like she did. Just like Jack did." Adrian replied.

"Jack did not do his best! He abandoned his family." Ambrose said.

"Yes, he did, something that he regrets." Adrian said.

"Too little, too late." Ambrose replied angrily.

Adrian reached out and touched his brother's arm.

"Ambrose. Jack made some extremely poor decisions when we were growing up. He made a big mistake in leaving us. Haven't you made mistakes?" he asked.

"Once." Ambrose said.

Adrian laughed. "More than once. Remember the candy bar? Your way of coping was to sit in the middle of the floor and devour all of your Halloween candy, and you almost died as a result."

"Who knew one of the bars was poisoned? It's not the same." Ambrose replied.

"I didn't say it was. But, I will say this, we all have our ways of coping. I essentially checked out of society for a few years after Trudy died. I wouldn't let anyone close to me in that way for over a decade. That was my way of coping. You, locked yourself in your room for two years after dad left and then in that house for decades. That wasn't healthy for you, but it's what you chose. You had the ability to leave, but you chose to stay. We all make choices. Some good. Some bad. We can't change them, just like Jack can't change his. We just have to move forward." Adrian replied.

"You're telling me to forget 50 years of neglect?" Ambrose asked.

"No. I'm telling you to forgive it. Let it go. We know it is there, but nothing can change it and holding on to the resentment won't solve a thing." He answered.

"I don't know if I can, Adrian. It took a lot to say those things to him, but I'm glad I did. I held that in a long time." Ambrose replied.

"I know. Our temperaments are a bit different in a lot of ways, but I felt the same sort of anger. Still do from time to time. But, I think I pushed passed it. If it hadn't been for the little issue of my paternity, I think things would be pretty good between us.

Listen Ambrose, he's a man with flaws. Who doesn't have them? Consider giving him a chance. Regardless what happens with me, I really don't think you want him out of your life after you waited so patiently for him so long."


	24. Chapter 24

It had been a long time since Adrian Monk was forced to depend on others to the degree he now had to depend upon Natalie and Ambrose. The last time he recalled being so incapacitated was when Trudy died, and he could practically do nothing for himself. Now, it wasn't a mental prison that he was in but one of bodily weakness and incredible physical fatigue. For several days, it was work an hour then sleep for three. Nevertheless, he was progressing with baby steps each session.

During one early session, Ambrose helped Adrian up and over to the parallel bars and then watched as Adrian went back and forth for about fifteen minutes. The therapist was really pushing him that day, and the fatigue really started to set in. On his sixth trip up and down the bars, Adrian's arms gave out and he came crashing to the floor.

The therapist on duty had no mercy. "No laying down on the job. Get on up and try some more."

Adrian just laid there, frustrated, tired, and upset when suddenly, big brother came over and lifted Adrian's arm, placing it around his shoulder, and then helped him back up.

"Next time, I want to see him do it on his own." said the therapist.

"There won't be a next time for you." Ambrose said. "You need to learn a little respect."

Adrian was too tired to fight, but the moment stuck with him since it was a little bit of role reversal. For so much of their lives, Adrian was forced to be the responsible one and took care of Ambrose and their mother. Then, Ambrose became more independent and Adrian had to do less of that. But, never could he recall Ambrose really stepping into the big brother role and being Adrian's protector. It felt nice.

* * *

On his twenty-fifth day in the hospital, Dr. Cohen came in to tell the family that he would be releasing Adrian to Spaulding Rehab around noon on the following day. The Boston facility had informed him that they felt with Adrian's progress, he could do his therapy as an outpatient, though for about a week, they did plan on sending a therapist to make sure that the home was equipped to handle some of the challenges he would face. For instance, in addition to the typical grab bars in the shower, they wanted a room set aside where he could do his therapy, and they recommended the temporary installation of a specially designed stair walker that would attach to the railing on the second set of steps at the back of their Swampscott residence, leading up to the 2nd floor. This device would move with him and lock in place so that he would have proper support and some amount of independence when going up and down the stairs.

Some friends of Heather's had finished the packing job of Ambrose's home in Marin County and had placed their things in storage for the move allowing Ambrose and Heather to make the trip to Boston at the same time. They planned on staying with Adrian and Natalie until their house in downtown Salem was ready to move in to. It all seemed quite perfect, except for one thing – Jack.

Ever since Ambrose's talk with him, Jack had seen fit to avoid both Ambrose and Adrian. There wasn't so much as a phone call, and Adrian wondered why he was the beneficiary of the father-son rift. Natalie told him to be patient and that Jack would come around at precisely the right moment; but, Adrian was anything but patient, because he desperately wanted to talk to him, and not for just the reasons that had brought him to Midland. Just before he was to leave the hospital, Adrian called Jack's home phone to say goodbye. Unfortunately, Jack was out running errands and he had to leave a message.

_Hi. It's me. Adrian Monk. I…I just wanted to let you know that we are heading back to Massachusetts. We leave at 3PM on Delta Flight 1221. Ambrose and Heather are with us. Natalie's parents went back home. _

_I'm sorry I didn't get to see you before I went home. I hope you are okay… I wanted you to know, I heard you talking to me when I was in the induced coma. I… I heard your reasoning, and while I can't absolve you… I just want you to know, I forgive you, and I'd like to talk..but not over the phone. Maybe sometime I will see you in Boston? I hope so. Anyway, thank you for sharing your house. I have to go now, Natalie is calling. Goodbye._

Adrian would watch at the airport for Jack to show up, but the plane took off without any sort of reunion, which was disappointing to say the least. Still, he kept Natalie's advice in mind, and dared to believe that one day they would have their talk.

* * *

That evening, Jack Monk came into the house with a bag of groceries in one hand and the mail in the other. Setting them both down on the counter, he walked over to the phone where he had a flashing light indicator that he had a message. Pressing play, he wept as he listened. He had wanted to be there with Adrian, but Ambrose never reached out to him and he was afraid to rock the boat. Now, his sons were both gone, and he felt utterly empty.

He put the groceries away, and then cleared off a spot to eat his dinner. As he sat there alone, he watched the television and was surprised to hear a brief press report indicating that Adrian had been released from the hospital and was heading home, and that his assailant was still on the loose. He jumped up, and grabbed a little notebook that he kept phone numbers in and then went to his telephone to call Leland and let him know.

_"Hello?" _Leland answered.

"Hey Leland. It's Jack..Monk." he said.

_"Hi Jack! I'm surprised to be hearing from you. Everything okay with Adrian?_" he asked.

"Fine. He's fine. They left for Boston today. I…I didn't' get to see him. Some stuff happened between me and Ambrose and I didn't get to see him off. But, that's not why I'm calling." He said.

_"Alright. What's up?"_ Leland asked.

"Didn't you tell the FBI that they weren't to talk to the press?" he asked.

_"Yes. I did."_ Leland confirmed.

"Well…I heard on the news tonight that Adrian was released from the hospital. He's on Delta flight 1221. Left at 3PM for Swampscott. News said he was heading home and that his assailant was still on the loose. They might as well have drawn folks a map."

_"Well I'll be a son of a… leave it to the feds to leak information they aren't supposed to."_ Leland exclaimed.

"You do still have security traveling with him, don't you?" Jack asked.

_"I had security set up for Texas. I wonder now why they didn't call me. Regardless, you can be sure that when his plane lands, he'll have a fresh detail waiting to escort him home. Thanks for letting me know. I've got to hang up now and, uh, deal with Mr. Kissinger. It was so much better when I was a cop."_ Leland complained.

"Anything to protect my son." said Jack as he hung up the phone, laid down the notebook on top of the mail (obscuring the first envelope which was addressed to Mr. Jack Monk from the National DNA service) and finished his dinner.

* * *

Natalie Monk sat on the airplane taking glances at the man next to her, whose behavior was that of a stranger, but whom she knew to be her husband.

Flying had always been a stressful time for both Monks, and the last time that they flew, they had run into a bad storm which caused Adrian to utterly melt down. This time, however, he was perfectly calm and happy as he held Abigail in his arms and mugged for his captive audience. Feeling Natalie's eyes upon him, he looked up and saw her sitting there with one eyebrow raised looking perplexed.

"What?" he asked, bouncing Abby on his knee.

"Who are you, and what have you done with my husband?" she asked.

Adrian smirked. "What do you mean?"

"This. The calm, peaceful manner in which you are now flying. I've never seen you this way…at least not on a flight." She replied.

He looked back at Abby and made another face which elicited giggles from the baby.

"Yeah, well, when you've already died once… I guess it kinda takes the edge off of the fear of dying. Really, you can probably cross that one off the list." He replied.

She looked at him. "That sounds like it crosses off several. You're no longer afraid of dying, so that means you're no longer afraid to fly."

"Nope." He replied.

"And you're no longer afraid of tsunamis?" she asked.

He thought. "No. Not especially." He replied.

"Snakes?" she asked.

"Well, now…snakes can bite you or choke you, so, yeah…proba…no, definitely yes, snakes I'm still afraid of." He said.

"What about germs? Are you still afraid of germs?" she asked.

"Well, yeah. I wasn't afraid of germs because I might die. I'm afraid of germs because they might make me sick and I could vomit." He said.

"Ah, a twofer." She replied.

"I guess." He answered.

"What about heights? Are you afraid of falling off of a tall building and dying?" she asked.

He laughed. "What is this? Are you trying to find all the heinous ways I could die?" he asked.

"No. I'm doing an inventory of your phobias so that I can update the list." She responded.

He exhaled and thought. "Dying from a fall off the building, no. I'm not afraid of that. The actual flying through the air and watching the windows zoom past my eyes…well, actually, since my eyes don't work exactly right at present, no…I couldn't track the movement anyway. So no. I guess I'm not afraid to fall off of a building and die." He replied.

"How about boats?" she asked.

"I do not want to drown." He replied.

"But you just said you weren't afraid of tsunamis." She said.

"No. Not the tsunami. It would happen suddenly and I'd be gone. There might be a bit of anxiety when I first see the wave…" he replied.

"So…you're not afraid of death as long as it is quick?" she said.

He shook his head. "Yeah. I guess so."

"Spiders?" she asked.

"That's not quick. They bite, you get infected. There is pain. And, they're sneaky. Keep them on the list." He replied.

"So, we pretty much have eliminated flying, tsunamis and falling from a building as long as your vision is still screwed up." She stated.

"Yeah! Progress!" he said cheerfully, returning to his play with Abby.

She smiled, satisfied with the knowledge that this was indeed her husband, and he was happy.

* * *

When the plane landed, the Monks were surprised when they were met by four FBI agents in black suits wearing sunglasses.

"Well that's subtle." Natalie said, immediately upon seeing them.

"Is that for us?" Ambrose asked.

"Undoubtedly." Adrian said, securing Lee in a stroller and then sitting down in a wheelchair. He had gained enough strength in his legs to where he was able to walk. Now, it was physical stamina and endurance that he fought. Therefore, whenever there were going to be long walks such as the hectic movement through the corridors at Boston's Logan airport, he still used the chair.

Two of the agents walked over to him and introduced themselves.

"You're Adrian Monk?" one of the men asked.

"Who wants to know?" he asked.

"Agents Feeney and Blaine. Over there are agents Metzger and Brown." He replied.

"We are your security detail." Blaine said.

"Courtesy of Agent Stottlemeyer?" Natalie asked.

"Yes, Ma'am. As long as this Paulie character is evading capture, we will be your protection." Feeney answered.

"Alright. Well, you'll find life a little boring I'm sure, so you might as well help us with our bags. I'm Natalie, and that's Adrian's brother Ambrose and his wife Heather." She said, wheeling Abby and Lee down the concourse as Ambrose wheeled Adrian.

* * *

Back at home in their bed for the first time in a month, Natalie snuggled next to her husband and reflected upon all that had gone on, and how thankful she was that she still had her family intact. Now, as she listened to the sound of Adrian's heart beating beneath her ear, she felt content. Things were going to turn out alright, all the way around. Adrian would heal, the bad guy would get captured. And they would go on living their lives, or so she hoped.

Of course, as long as Paulie was still out there, there was going to be anxiety. But somehow, just being back in familiar surroundings helped some of that fear to abate as well. Little did she know that LaSalle had heard the news report and had done exactly what Stottlemeyer feared he would do upon the news that Monk was recovering. He jumped in the car and began driving the thirty-one-hour trip from Midland, Texas to Boston, determined to finish the job.


	25. Chapter 25

"I did not quit my role as Commissioner of the San Francisco Police Department to come and join the Keystone Cops! Adrian Monk's life is in danger and someone from your organization has endangered him more by leaking information to the press – precisely what I said should NOT happen!" Leland Stottlemeyer stated in Dale Kissinger's office at 8:00 AM.

"Leland, I already told you the leak did not come from one of my guys. I will vouch for my men." Kissinger answered.

"If not your guys, then who?" Stottlemeyer asked.

"Perhaps it was the hospital staff." He replied.

"Not that staff. The only people who knew he was being released were the doctor and the intern who wheeled him out. We've already talked to both of them and they said it wasn't them." Leland answered.

"And you believe them?" Kissinger asked.

At that moment, Kissinger's secretary, Helen Orly, came walking in the door with some messages.

"Dale, Belinda Davis from the Fort Worth Times Star called again, she wanted clarification on the embezzling charges against Representative Fredericks." She said, handing him a note.

"Tell her that I'll get back with her a little later. I'm in an important meeting." He replied.

"But sir, this is the third time she called. She won't take no for an answer." Helen responded.

Stottlemeyer put his hands on his hips and listened to the conversation and then lowered his eyebrows.

After the secretary left, he immediately questioned Kissinger. "This press woman, have you ever met her before?" he asked.

"Well, yes. I've met most of the local press at least once." He replied.

"Was she in the building any time recently?" Stottlemeyer asked.

"No. She's all the way in Fort Worth. Listen Leland, I know what you're getting at…" he said.

"Were there _any_ press people in this building in the past few days?" he asked.

"No. We are very careful. I assure you." He replied.

"Apparently not careful enough." He said, opening the door. "Helen, were there any press people in here in the past day or so?"

Helen thought. "Yes, Garrett Judson from the El Paso Times. He was here getting information on the embezzlement case. He was here yesterday morning."

"How openly was the Adrian Monk case being discussed?" he asked.

"Not very openly. I let Dale know he was being released and that the agents who were guarding him could be reassigned." She replied.

"Was Judson there at the time you mentioned this?" Leland asked.

Kissinger bowed his head because he knew what the answer was.

"Why yes. I believe he was." Helen replied.

Leland shook his head. "Unbelievable. You're supposed to be a leader in the FBI and you are openly discussing such sensitive information? "

Kissinger said nothing.

"Fine. I have to fix this too apparently. Monk is now in Boston. I need to go talk to the leadership there and see what we can do about ramping up his security even _more_ until LaSalle is caught." He said, turning towards the door. "If you find out new information, let _me_ know about it! And, make sure you don't' have prying ears around you when you do." Leland instructed him as he left the room.

* * *

Jack Monk was about to head out of the house for a small delivery in Odessa, when he reached for his keys on the hook above the counter. Pocketing the keys, he looked down at the mail and decided he would do a little recycling while he was at it. As he picked it up, his heart skipped a beat when he saw the first letter. National DNA service. The results were in. He stared at the envelope for several minutes, toying with whether he wanted to know or not. Finally, he took a deep breath and folded the envelope in half and put it in his pocket.

"He's the one who wanted it done. He can be the one who first sees the results. I will mail them to him." He said to himself.

He laid the rest of the mail down and then went out for his morning delivery, his mind somewhat distracted by the special letter. He needed to talk with someone, but without his children in his life, he wasn't sure who.

* * *

He pulled his rig into Tiger Trucking around 4 PM Midland time. Parking it, he went into the office to return the signed off paperwork indicating the delivery had been made. The only one in the office at the time was the treasurer, a woman Jack had known for many years, Patty Lasko. She was a widowed woman in her early sixties. She was always so nice and friendly, he thought to himself, perhaps she wouldn't mind him bending her ear for a few.

He sat down and told her the _whole_ story, from his marriage to Agnes to the abandonment of the boys to his current estrangement from them. He even told her about the doctor's bill and how upset Adrian was about the whole thing.

"So…that's where I stand. I have this letter. He's the one who wanted it, so I think he is the one who needs to read it first. I don't even care what it says. Well… I do, because based upon what is in this mail, I may be disowned." He said.

"But you said you didn't think your wife actually cheated on you." Patty said.

"I don't. I think she was just angry and acting out because we had a big fight. I had taken our future into my hands and had eliminated the possibility of having other children…at least not without another operation… So, she tried to hurt me. I had had enough." He said. "So what do you think I should do? Should I open this letter and then read the results to him, or should I just go ahead and mail it?"

"Jack. You know what I think you should do?" she asked.

"That's what I'm asking." He responded.

"I think you should go. I think you should deliver it yourself. This isn't something that should be handled in such an impersonal way." She replied.

"But, Ambrose hates me and Adrian…he probably does too." He said.

"That's not what he said on the phone. He said he wants to talk with you." She said.

"Probably to tell me off like Ambrose." Jack replied.

"You know better than that. You're just afraid. Jack…" she said "I've known you, what? 30 years? You've always seemed to me to be a nice but lonely guy. The most excitement I saw out of you in those 30 years was when Adrian was here about ten years ago, and you bought him that bike. Even if what is in that envelope indicates that Agnes was unfaithful, it still doesn't change that you are the boys father. A lot of men go around spreading their DNA. Only the good ones choose to be a father. Fight for your relationship with him, and with poor Ambrose. It may be true that you aren't one of their father's biologically, but you're the father they know. Work it out." She said.

"So, you're saying I shouldn't mail the letter?" Jack asked.

She rolled her eyes, and then touched his hand. "I'm saying you should book a flight to Boston." She said as plainly as she could. "I can call the airline right this minute."

Jack thought for a moment and then shook his head. Flying was not his usual mode of transportation, but she was right, this was important enough, it should be handled in person.

* * *

Randy and Sharona Disher had just put Ophelia to bed and were about to do their equivalent of Friday night date night by watching a movie on Amazon Prime when his work cell phone rang. Sharona shook her head and looked at him.

"Really?" she asked.

He looked at the clock, which read 9:52 PM, and then shrugged his shoulders at Sharona as he answered the phone.

"Disher." He said, trying to sound authoritative. "Yes… that's the guy… What? Where?" he asked.

Sharona furrowed her brow and let out a big sigh. She could already tell there was going to be no date night tonight.

"Alright… get what you can gathered together. I'll get with Stottlemeyer and let him know and will take a drive down to Boston first thing in the morning with your report and whatever other information you have." He said. "Thanks, Parker."

He hung up.

Sharona looked at him. "Well?"

"Well…they found Ramon Pontero's car, abandoned in a park in Yonkers." He said.

"What? That means Paulie's in our neck of the woods." She replied with concern.

"Yes. There have been several reports of stolen cars over the last 24 hours, so we're not sure if he might be in one of them, but I asked Parker to pull whatever data together he can, and I'll call Leland and make the 4 hour trip up to Boston first thing in the morning." He said.

"I'm going with you!" Sharona stated.

"Sharona, dear…" he said.

"No. I care about these people just as much as you do. And besides, I got jipped tonight. We can at least get some time together that way. I'll drop Ophie off at the sitters and we can make the trip together." She stated.

He condescended to her wish, and threw one arm around her, kissing her on the head, then called Leland, who was still at FBI headquarters. After a lengthy discussion, Stottlemeyer agreed with Randy's travel plans and said he would meet him around noon at the FBI hub in downtown Boston. He then called Adrian and Natalie and invited them to join them. They needed to come up with a plan to keep the Monk family safe, and Leland couldn't think of a better team to formulate said plan.


	26. Chapter 26

It was a bit like old times as the Monks, Stottlemeyer and the Dishers met at the FBI's Boston hub around noon the next day, only this time Ambrose had joined them, leaving Heather back at Swampscott babysitting Lee and Abby as two guards kept watch.

Because it was Saturday, there were very few people other than their group and the lead security guard working, so they had little problem securing a conference room and mapping out their plans in case of trouble.

Monk's security detail would be present at all times and would check in with Leland and Randy every hour on the hour. They would leave their posts only when the next shift arrived, which happened every eight hours. The most recent shift started at 2PM, so night shift could be expected at 10PM.

In addition to this, Adrian, Natalie, Ambrose and Heather would each wear security alert tags which would allow them to press a button, sending texts to each team member's phones if there was any trouble. The gang was all staying at Adrian and Natalie's home at night and could provide strong coverage inside the house. But they were also in the middle of an intense manhunt so much of the time they would be away, hence the tags.

At home, each family member had his or her own assignments. In the event of trouble, Natalie and Ambrose would grab the babies while Heather would help Adrian get down the stairs and to safety if they heard that Paulie was on his way. If he were in the building, each adult knew where weapons were stored and they knew the combinations to the locks. They were covering themselves the best they knew how.

A problem with the plan arose when it became known that other than the former cops in their midst, the team had very little experience with firearms. Heather had never actually shot a gun and Ambrose hadn't fired a weapon since his father bought him a BB gun at age 9 to go after groundhogs that were tearing up the Monk back yard. Ambrose had fired it once, deliberately missing because he thought of the groundhogs as pets, and Jack got so angry he broke the gun in two and threw it away. Natalie used to shoot a little for self-defense but was very much out of practice. With this in mind, Leland and Randy thought it prudent to meet with the group early that evening at the FBI gun range where they would teach them the basics of firearms safety and practice with the guns they would hopefully never have to use in a real-life scenario.

* * *

Jack Monk's flight was supposed to leave at 6AM, but due to inclement weather in the nation's midsection, it didn't take off until 9:45. With a short layover in Atlanta, this now had him landing in Boston at around 6PM and arriving at Adrian and Natalie's at somewhere close to 7. Normally very time conscious, Jack actually welcomed the delays and spent the time rehearsing speeches he planned to make to Ambrose and Adrian.

With Ambrose, he saw in his son the same stubborn streak that Jack himself tended to have towards dealing with hard things. Now, at nearly eighty years of age, he wasn't willing to just let Ambrose dither the time away, losing what time they had left. He wanted a fresh start, with no lies and no abandonment. He hoped Ambrose would have cooled down enough to want the same.

For Adrian, the conversation would largely be governed by how he reacted to the document. Before he handed him the paper, he wanted to tell him how very proud he was of him and how much he loved him and to apologize for not being there – his greatest regret. Being respectful of whatever choice Adrian would make, he wanted him to know that he would always look at him as his son, even if he never saw him again. He had been the highlight of his father's life.

Of course, Adrian could say that he loved him and still wanted to be a part of his life. Who could say? Regardless, he felt that he needed to let both boys know how grateful he was to be a part of their lives, for even a little bit, and how much he admired the men they had become.

* * *

After working all day, the Monks, Dishers and Stottlemeyer swung by the house to go put on some shooting clothes, and then planned on running out for a quick bite to eat after a workout at the range. Unfortunately, by the time they entered the door, Adrian had so tired himself out by insisting on walking the whole time, that he practically collapsed on the couch like a rag doll.

Seeing this, Natalie grimaced and walked over to his side, sitting on the edge of the couch.

"I told you that you should have brought the chair. You're trying to do too much!" Natalie said, reaching over and touching his arm.

"I'm never going to get strong if I don't push myself. I just need to rest here for a few minutes." He said.

Sharona walked over to him and knelt, getting down to eye level. "Adrian. Listen. You need to do what the doctor says. They have therapy sessions set out for you. That's where you'll get your strength back. If you push too hard, you could have a setback, and it will slow down your recovery." She said.

"I'll be okay." He said, sitting up on his elbows.

"She has a point, Adrian." Said Heather. "I had a friend who broke his foot. Doctors said to stay off it for six weeks, but he insisted on walking on it. A year later, he was still not healed."

"I didn't break my foot. I'm just a muss." He said. "I'll be fine."

"A what?" Heather asked.

"Long story. I will tell you later." Adrian replied.

"You look like you don't feel well. I think maybe we should stay home tonight and practice some other night." Natalie said.

"No, no, no! You all are worrying too much! Natalie, I'm fine. Just give me a few minutes to rest here and I'll be as good as new." He replied, laying back down and closing his eyes. He looked pale.

"I don't think you should go." She said, stroking his hair.

"Natalie." He replied, with his eyes shut.

"Sharona, you're the nurse. Do you think he should stay home and rest or do you think it's okay for him to go." She asked.

"Oh for goodness sake. Will you women stop?!" he replied. "I feel like I'm being ganged up on."

"We're only trying to look out for you. Stop being so grumpy." Natalie responded.

Sharona walked over and felt his forehead which had broken into a cold sweat. "No. You're not going anywhere. I think we need to cancel for tonight."

"No. We're not cancelling." Adrian said, opening his eyes. "Paulie is on his way and we ALL need to be prepared." He said, trying to pull himself up, but indeed the fatigue was only getting worse as he fought.

Natalie took his face in her hand and pressed her forehead up against his. "Lay back down. I don't feel good about leaving you."

"Nat, there are armed guards outside. What could go wrong?" He asked. "Go."

"Okay. You win. I will go, but we will be gone an hour and half max. The guards are just outside. Call them if you have trouble. Heather put the babies down for a nap. I can go upstairs and bring them down so they can be with you."

He laid down and looked at the ceiling. "No. Don't disturb them."

He started to get up.

"What are you doing? Lay right here." She said.

" I'm going to go up in our bed so I can be near the babies if they cry. I may not be able to do anything for them, but at least I'll be there. Can you help me get up the stairs?" he asked.

Natalie moved to the side and took Adrian's hand and she and Ambrose helped him to stand up. Ambrose then walked with him over to the main stairwell and helped him climb the steps up to the second floor.

Stopping by the baby's room on the way, Adrian kept their door open in case he needed to get to them. Meanwhile Natalie gave strict instructions to the guards to keep watch on her family before they left for the range. They would be back soon.

* * *

Just outside of Boston proper, Paulie LaSalle came upon a police officer walking out of a fast food restaurant. The man was just coming off of his shift and was picking up a bite to eat.

"If you're in a hurry, you should go to another place." The cop said to Paulie.

"Thanks for the information." LaSalle said, his eyes meeting those of the officer.

The officer recognized him.

"Hey" the officer said. "Aren't you that guy they are looking for?" he said.

"No. You must be mistaken." LaSalle said turning away, but then he swinging around, he removed his pistol from his side holster and knocked the officer out with the butt end of the gun.

The officer collapsed.

Looking around, Paulie drug the man's unconscious body off to an alley and shoved it inside a dumpster. He emerged a few moments later wearing a police uniform and sunglasses.

Taking the man's keys, he jumped into the squad car, adjusted the mirror, and then drove away headed towards the Monk home in Swampscott.

* * *

"The first rule of firearms safety is that you NEVER point your weapon at something you are not willing to destroy. The second rule is keep your finger away from the trigger unless you are willing to fire your weapon." Stottlemeyer instructed.

"I thought the first rule was lock up your weapon to keep it away from kids." Said Sharona

"That's a different set of rules." Said Randy. "That's firearms storage safety. This is firearms usage."

"Ohhhhh." Sharona replied.

"Alright. Most assailants will attack at a short distance, so most of our practice will be relatively close range. However, with LaSalle, he's such a dangerous character, we don't really want to be anywhere near where he could cause us harm, so if we see him – and this is important – if he appears to be coming towards us and we believe he will harm us, say he's brandishing a firearm, then, we can take steps to eliminate the threat." Leland said.

"Gotta keep this in mind, because if we shoot Paulie and he isn't really a threat, well you could get sued or arrested." Randy added.

"Are you kidding? This guy has killed multiple people. Of course, he's a threat." Ambrose replied.

"I do not disagree. I think Paulie's record is clear enough that he is definitely to be perceived as a threat. I just mentioned the above because this is not vigilante justice. This is self-defense." said Leland. "I am the only federal agent authorized to apprehend, or, if necessary, eliminate Paulie LaSalle. But, under our constitution, you each have the right to bear arms in self-defense. Under Massachusetts state law, however, you have a duty to retreat."

"Retreat? You mean run away?" asked Sharona.

"The Castle Doctrine." Randy stated.

"What is the Castle Doctrine?" asked Natalie.

"It means that if we are out and about and we see Paulie LaSalle, we do not approach him. We call the authorities. You will be arrested if you try to go after him out on the streets. But, if he is on your property – according to state law, actually in your house - then you have the right to use deadly force or whatever force is reasonable to stop him. Assuming of course you reasonably believe he is there to cause you harm." Leland replied.

"What other reason would he be there? To sell us a subscription to Reader's Digest?"" Sharona asked.

"I am just mentioning it as part of your training as something to be aware of. For my part, LaSalle is on the property, shoot to kill." Leland said.

"'Better to be judged by twelve than carried by six.'" Ambrose replied. "I used to hear that all the time in one of the online forums."

"What sort of forums are you visiting?" Natalie asked.

"All sorts. I like to study people." He replied. "Just because I don't agree with you, doesn't mean I can't get to know you and be civil."

* * *

After a few more minutes of instruction Leland told the team to put on their 'eyes and ears' and they could begin shooting. Despite ear protection, having all the weapons discharge at once was far louder than the less experienced members of the team expected, so Heather was tasked with checking cell phones every fifteen minutes to make sure that there were no messages since hearing a phone would be impossible.

* * *

Jack Monk's plane landed in Boston at precisely 6:00 PM, but it sat on the runway for another twenty minutes after landing. By this point, he was becoming a bit anxious at the time factor, wanting to get moving so that he could see his sons. He kept the letter within his jacket pocket and took it out from time to time just to look at the envelope. In his mind, that thin piece of paper held the answer to his fate. Would things turn out the way he wanted and he be reconciled with his sons, or would he be banished forever?

* * *

In Swampscott, Adrian Monk's security team stood outside the doors of the home in deep conversation about a Red Sox game they had just seen on television.

"Did you see how we swept those Reds? Three game series. They couldn't touch us." One agent said to the other.

"Yeah man, if these guys keep up this winning streak, I think that we're a shoe-in for the playoffs." His partner replied.

"Who we up against next?" the other asked.

"Uh, I think it's the Blue Jays. It's been a good season. We'll get A.L. East for sure." He replied.

As they were talking, a police car pulled into Adrian Monk's driveway. Stepping out of the car, Paulie LaSalle gave every appearance that he was legitimately supposed to be there. He walked up to the front porch and flashed a badge at them from the stolen uniform.

"Hey officer. Can I help you?" the first agent asked LaSalle.

"Yeah. I got a report a few minutes ago that there were some shots fired in this vicinity. Came to check it out." Paulie replied, surveying the area to see how many people he needed to take out.

The two agents looked at one another, and one said "No. We've been here the whole time. Haven't heard of any shots being fired."

"Oh. Okay. They must have been mistaken." He stated, turning back towards the car. As he turned, he took off his sunglasses and reached into his waist band for his gun. Turning back around, his amber eyes bore down upon the two agents. He stopped.

"Of course, we can remedy that." He said to both agents surprise.

The men did not have a chance to react before Paulie LaSalle had fired two rounds into both men at point blank range. They crumpled to the ground, dead before they hit the porch.

* * *

Upstairs, the shots woke Adrian up, causing him to fly out of bed. He went to the bedroom door that he had left open just a crack and saw LaSalle enter the premises.

Shutting the door, he quickly moved to his closet, only to find that his gun safe was open and his pistol was gone. He closed his eyes.

Why didn't he remember to ask them to leave him a gun too?

Lifting his hand towards his chest, he grabbed hold of the security tag and he pressed the panic button, hopeful at catching Leland and Randy's attention. As he did, a sobering thought occurred to him. The children!

He walked as quickly as he could back to the bedroom door and opened it. Paulie was heading up the stairs! Trapped, he had one thing on his mind. Get to Lee and Abby and secure their environment. Even if he took a bullet. They were worth everything.

Paulie was about halfway up the stairs and had seen Monk. He began to grin.

"Adrian Monk! We meet again." He said.

Adrian looked around for anything that he could use as a weapon, even as Paulie began to reach for his gun. Spotting a large decorative vase near the top of the landing, left there from his mother-in-law Peggy's last decorating spree, he mustered up every bit of energy that he could and rushed over to the table and picked it up. Sheer Adrenaline coursed through his veins as he hurled the vase at Paulie, hitting him squarely in the face and chest. LaSalle went tumbling down the steps, and laid there for several minutes in a daze.

This allowed Adrian enough time to make his way over to Lee and Abby's bedroom door. Quickly moving inside, he locked the door from the inside and dragged their chest of drawers and then the dresser in front of the door. Physically spent, he slid down against the wall and pressed the panic button once again.

* * *

At the range, the team was too engrossed in what they were doing to hear the alert come in.

Ambrose discovered he was a pretty good shot, while Heather decided that she would leave the shooting to her husband. It just made her too nervous. Natalie's target was impressive. Leland assumed it was natural skill, but Natalie knew that picturing Paulie LaSalle's face on the target as she shot had certainly helped her to focus.

After shooting an entire box of rounds each, the team decided to break.

"You really did great, Natalie!" Sharona said, congratulating her friend.

"Thanks." Natalie replied. "LaSalle should take note not to mess with me."

"I sure wouldn't want to mess with you!" said Ambrose, putting his gun back in its case.

"Well you did well too, Ambrose. I'm proud of you!" Natalie replied.

"I tried." Ambrose said, bashfully.

As the team gathered their things, it dawned on Leland that they should have received a call from the agents on duty.

"Hey. When's the last time we heard from the guard?" Leland asked.

"Let me check." Heather replied.

As they conversed, Heather went over to check the phone for messages. She was shocked when she saw ten messages coming from Adrian's panic button.

"Oh no!" she exclaimed.

"What?!" the team asked, almost in unison.

"It's Adrian. He's pressed the panic button." She said.

"What? Let me see." asked Natalie, running to her side to take the phone.

"Maybe he hit it by mistake." Randy suggested.

"No. He's pressed it like ten times. He's in trouble!" Natalie said fearfully.

"D #$it! We are getting too old for this!" Leland said, almost in a shout. "Let's get out of here!"

* * *

Back at the Monk home, Paulie had made his way upstairs. He was bleeding from his head and staggered a little as he walked. He tried the door handle, and cursed when it wouldn't open. He took his pistol and shot three rounds at the lock. It broke loose, but when he pushed on the door he still couldn't get it to budge. He stopped. Cursed again, and thought. Turning around, he made his way back down the stairs and began looking in the Monk's supply closet. He spotted exactly what he needed. Two large bottles of kerosene that Monk had stored there to power lamps in case of an emergency, and a box of matches.

Taking to the stairs, he poured every ounce of fuel on the stairs, the living room furniture, and in the dining room which flanked the Monk's main hallway. Looking up the stairs, he smiled and then lit the match. Throwing it down in the center of the stairwell, he watched in sinister fascination as the Monk's main stairwell, and soon the living room and dining room became engulfed in a violent display of smoke and flames.


	27. Chapter 27

Billowing smoke could be seen from the distance as the Stottlemeyer caravan made its way along the main road in Swampscott to the turnoff to Adrian and Natalie's house. The closer they got to their destination, the more fear had each and every heart in its grasp. Turning onto their street, they saw for the first time the front of the house the Monk's called home, flames coming out its side windows with two dead FBI agents lying on its porch.

"Oh dear heavens!" Stottlemeyer exclaimed as he pulled into the driveway.

Throwing the car into park, he had no time to gawk, needing instead to go chase Natalie who was hysterically about to run inside the building. He caught up to her about fifty feet from the front door and grabbed her around the waist.

"My babies! And Adrian! They are inside! Let me go!" she screamed.

"Natalie, no! It's too dangerous!" Stottlemeyer replied.

"I don't care! Leland, let me go." She said, falling apart in his arms.

Ambrose quickly caught up with the two and was a nervous wreck.

"What are we going to do, Leland! My brother is up there, and my niece and nephew!" he cried, pacing back and forth.

Randy picked up the phone and called the fire department just as Jack Monk's taxi pulled into the driveway beside Leland's car.

Jumping out of the car, Jack threw money at the driver and told him to just leave his stuff in the driveway. He then ran up to Ambrose and Natalie and asked what was happening.

Before anyone could answer, they heard gunfire coming from the porch.

Looking up, they saw Paulie LaSalle walking on the porch, he was staring straight at them.

Leland urged all of them to get down and stay down, directing them to hide behind the safety of his rental car.

"I see you there, Leland Stottlemeyer! You're too late! I got him! I had the last word!" Paulie said, with a laugh.

"Like H# $ you did!" Leland said, standing up with gun in hand and plugging two bullets in quick succession into Paulie's torso.

LaSalle stumbled backwards and tried to fire back, but his aim was not even close. He then stumbled back towards the house, and went back in through the open front door.

"He's getting away!" said Sharona.

"Stay here!" Randy said, kissing Sharona and then looking at Stottlemeyer as the two men stood and made their way carefully towards the house.

As the group watched in horror, the flames grew, now making their way out the windows of the upstairs hall window at the front of the house.

Randy and Leland climbed onto the porch and peeked inside the front door, seeing Paulie LaSalle's silhouette standing in contrast to the flames around him.

"You're surrounded, LaSalle! Give yourself up!" Stottlemeyer yelled.

Paulie responded with another shot aimed towards Leland's voice, but missing him by about three feet.

"I'm not going back to jail. You'll have to kill me first." They heard LaSalle respond, as he stumbled through the flame into the living room.

Stottlemeyer looked at Disher who nodded back at him.

"On the count of three." Leland said. "One..two.."

Just then portions of the ceiling above the living room came crashing down upon Paulie, causing him to burst into flames. Leland and Randy stood silently watching the spectacle as LaSalle ran madly out of the living room back into the main hallway, dropping his gun in the fire. They watched him stumble and heard him scream, but when a beam came crashing down in front of them, they knew there was no way they could even attempt to pull him out of the flame. They had higher hopes for Adrian and the children, knowing that the bedrooms were at the, thus far, unaffected back portion of the house.

Leland and Randy turned back towards the group.

"LaSalle is dead. Run out back and see if we can get in through the back entrance. The back of the house isn't on fire yet, but the stairs up front are useless." Leland yelled.

* * *

If it were a timed race, it would be hard to say who ran quicker, Ambrose or Natalie, but when the group reached the back of the house they could hear the children's voices crying out through the open window of their bedroom and noticed that there was less smoke coming out of their room than others.

"Adrian!" Natalie yelled, above their cries. "Honey! Speak to me!"

Within seconds, Adrian Monk's head peered over the window sill, next to those of his babies.

"Natalie!" he said, amidst coughing.

"Monk. Stay right there, we'll be there in a second." Stottlemeyer said.

Adrian coughed. "No. You can't. I have the door blocked from the inside. I don't have the strength left to move it out of the way. Even if you were to get up the back stairs, you couldn't get in."

"Leland! You have to do something!" Natalie cried.

"I'm thinking." Stottlemeyer responded. "You have any ladders in the garage?" he asked Natalie.

"I..I don't know. But we can check." She said, pulling the keys to the garage out of her pocket and running to Stottlemeyer's side.

While Leland, Natalie, Randy and Ambrose went to the garage to find anything whatsoever that would work, Jack Monk walked up under the window. "I got an idea."

"You do?" Adrian asked.

"Yeah. Toss me a kid!" he said.

Adrian looked down at Jack and said, "Uh…I don't think so."

"Come on. I used to be a catcher in college. I was very good." He replied.

"You were?" he asked. "You never told me that."

"Yeah. It's only about a 14 foot drop. I won't drop them. I promise." He said.

Adrian turned and saw that the smoke was beginning to build within the room, and looked back towards Jack.

"Son. Will you trust me?" he asked.

* * *

The most that the group could find in the garage was three saw horses and a long plank of wood. But, it would have to do. Running out of the garage, they each carried something as they came bounding up the hill with the equipment just in time to see Adrian Monk holding baby Leland by his wrists out the window as Jack Monk stood underneath ready to catch. They stopped and stared, setting the equipment down on the ground.

"It's okay, son. I've got him. Just let him go." He spoke softly to Adrian who was weeping.

"Don't drop him, dad. It's my life you're taking into your hands." He cried.

"I won't, Adrian." Jack said softly.

Natalie ran up beside Jack as Adrian let go of baby Leland's wrists. The catch couldn't have been more perfect.

Quickly, Jack handed the crying baby to his mother as Adrian grabbed hold of Abby and repeated the process. He smiled with gratitude and love as he watched the old man holding tightly to his daughter.

Natalie handed Leland to Sharona, who now stood next to her, and took a crying Abigail from Jack's arms.

"Okay, son. You next." Jack said.

Adrian looked down at the distance between the window and the ground and balked.

"I … I can't." he said.

"Adrian! You have to! Hang on to the ledge. We'll catch you." Natalie said.

He peered back over the edge. "Remember that stuff I said about falling off a building. Forget about it. It's back on the list."

"Adrian, this is no time to retreat on me. Get down here!" she ordered.

"Monk! Come on!" Leland said.

Ambrose looked around and saw the forgotten saw horses.

"If he won't come down, I'm going up!" he said.

"What are you going to do?" Sharona asked.

"Come on! Let's get moving!" he replied.

* * *

Running out to the yard, they gathered the saw horses together, bringing to the house, and stretched the wood plank so that it laid across them like a platform.

"Now what?" asked Randy.

"Move it close to the house." Ambrose stated. "You guys are about six foot or so?" he asked.

Both men nodded.

"Alright. I need you to both s..stand on that plank, and…and then, I need you to give me a boost so I can stand on top of your shoulders. I should be able to reach the window ledge." He replied.

Stottlemeyer and Disher immediately jumped on top of the plank, bracing themselves the best that they could against the building. Ambrose climbed up beside them.

"Be careful son." Jack said.

"I will, pops." Ambrose replied, as he put one foot in Leland's hands and the other in Disher's, and then braced himself against the building while they hoisted him up.

Standing on their shoulders, Ambrose was more than tall enough to reach the window sill.

Looping his arm over it, into the room, he climbed the side of building as Adrian grabbed his arm and pulled him inside. The two brothers looked at each other in recognition that they had been in this situation before, only then, the shoe was on the other foot. But, there was no time for discussion. The smoke was growing more and more intense and they could feel the room becoming warmer by the minute.

Outside, Swampscott Fire and Rescue pulled up with their fire truck. Quickly, the firemen scampered to get the hose attached to the hydrant while others moved in towards the house.

"Out back!" Sharona yelled to them. "We have people inside!"

It was less than two minutes between the time two firemen ran in through the back door and up the back stairs until they came back out again with Ambrose and Adrian safely in tow. The two brothers had worked together to toss the chest of drawers aside and only slowed down once, when Adrian had to reach out and touch the top of the finial at the top of the newel post heading down the stairs.

Covered in soot and gasping for air, the two brothers laid on the grass, surrounded by their wives, and began tearfully laughing that they had made it out of the building alive.

"We..we're even!" Ambrose was heard to say.

"I wouldn't have it any other way." was Adrian's response.


	28. Chapter 28

Ambrose Monk was treated at the scene and released, but Adrian and the babies had to spend the night in the hospital undergoing tests, receiving chest x-rays and inhaling a therapeutic dose of oxygen to sooth their irritated lungs. In the morning, they were cleared for release and left out the rear entrance to the hospital lest the waiting press impede their exit. When asked where he wanted to go, Adrian insisted on returning to their home in Swampscott to survey the damage.

* * *

The front of the house was a total loss, now standing in appearance like the burnt-out shell of some ancient ruin. To their surprise, the rear of the house withstood the fire. Unbeknownst to them, there was a division within the house in which a brick wall served as a firewall. This division marked the spot where a portion of the 18th century brick home built by Mortimer Monk stood. Other sections were added later. There was fire and water damage for certain, but from the looks of what was left, it was not a total loss.

Adrian climbed out of passenger's seat of Natalie's car and began walking through the debris. In addition to his wife, joining him were Leland and Randy, Sharona and Ambrose. Heather checked into a hotel with the children so they could better work.

Their goal was to look through the rubble and see if anything could be saved. Gone were Natalie's grandmother's China and a set of crystal goblets that had been owned by Monk's mother. Gone was Adrian's record collection. Gone was an antique buffet that sat in the dining room, and all of the furniture and books that were in the living room. Some silverware survived, though looking at it, it was so blackened by the fire that Adrian doubted it would ever be used again. It was a depressing sight.

As the group combed through the damage, he walked over to the section of the living room where the bookshelves once sat. Bending down, he used a pen from his pocket to comb through one particular section of charred mess. Within the pile he found something familiar, and a tear rolled down his cheek.

Natalie saw this and walked to his side. "What is it, honey? What's wrong?" she asked.

He said nothing, but only held up the burnt out remains of a silver frame that Natalie recognized as one in which Adrian kept his and Trudy's engagement photo.

"Oh no. Your engagement photos. I didn't even think about that. Our family photos! So many of them were kept in the bookshelf. All that history. No wonder you're crying." she said, bending down next to him and putting her arm around his back.

He looked straight ahead with sadness. "A lot of them were. My wedding pictures with Trudy. Yours with Mitch. Some photos of my mother. Pictures of Julie growing up…"

She laid her head against his. "Well, don't worry. Trudy's parents probably have some pictures that we can replace them with, and I know my parents have old pictures from my history."

"Yeah. You're right. Probably so." He said. "But that's not why I was crying."

"Oh?" she asked.

"No. I'm sad that we lost all these things…but…as much as we valued them, they're just things. It's just stuff. I'm crying because I realize, what a blessed guy I am. I got to keep the most important part. I have my memories, the good and the bad, and I have my kids, and I have…you." He replied, looking at her glistening eyes with the most loving and sincere look she had ever seen.

He put his hand to the side of her cheek and went in for a tender and heartfelt kiss that made her knees go weak as she seemed to fall in love with him all over again.

* * *

Leland and Randy walked over with trash bags in their hands wanting to show Monk a silver platter that they had found which belonged to his Mom.

"Sorry." Leland said, upon interrupting the kiss. "Are you interested in keeping this?" he asked.

Adrian stood up and took the item in his hand. "Yeah. We'll see if it can be salvaged. It belonged to Mom."

"Oh really? Let me see." Ambrose said. Looking at the item, he said "I have one just like it in our stuff. You can go ahead and throw that away. I will give you mine."

Adrian smiled at his brother and patted him on the back.

Just then, a taxicab pulled up and Jack Monk exited the vehicle.

"If it isn't Jack Monk!" Leland exclaimed.

"Hey ya, Leland. I was just heading back to Texas and I wanted to say goodbye to my boys." He said.

"Are you sure you can't stay?" Adrian asked.

"I would love to, son. But Tiger Trucking…" he said.

"Can get someone else to do their deliveries." Adrian finished. "Dad. I really wanted to talk with you. I wanted to tell you that I'm sorry." He said.

"For what?" Jack asked. "I'm the one who should be sorry. I should have been honest with you boys all along."

"I get why you weren't though. And…it's okay. I can get passed it." He said. "Listen. Don't leave." He replied.

Jack got quiet.

"Adrian. There's something you don't know." He said, reaching into his jacket pocket. "This. It came in the mail."

He handed the envelope to Adrian who looked at who it was from and then looked back up at Jack.

"It's what you wanted. I…I haven't opened it. I thought that you should be the one." He said as all eyes turned to Adrian.

Adrian looked at the letter and then at Jack, then walked over to the trash can, opened the lid and threw the paper inside.

"It's not important." He said. "I know who my dad is. I'm the son of Jack and Agnes Monk, and no receipt or DNA test will ever change that. I love you, Dad."

Jack began to cry and threw his arms around Adrian. "I love you too, son!"

After a few moments he looked up at Ambrose who walked over to him in a stiff awkward manner, then reached out his arms for a hug.

"And you too Ambrose! I am so proud of you both!" he said, walking the men back towards the taxicab.

"So, do you think you can stay?" Adrian asked. "I mean, we're all going to have to find some alternative place to live for the time being."

"You're going to rebuild?" Jack asked.

"Absolutely! Why would I give up this beautiful piece of property where we can look at the sunrise and smell that fresh ocean breeze. Hey Natalie, do you think I could build a stable for Shadow?" Adrian said as they walked.

"I don't see why not!" She replied.

* * *

It did Leland, Randy, and Sharona's heart good to see things turning out so well for their friend. After all that they had been through together, it was only fitting that it would end so well.

There was only one thing wrong about the whole scenario, and it didn't' take long until Randy Disher became so bothered by it that he had to do something about it

As the trio stood with hands on their hips watching the Monks walk away, Randy looked at Leland and then he looked at Sharona and then he looked at the trash can. Tilting his head in its general direction, he told the other two to cover for him.

"Randy! That's not yours!" Sharona scolded.

"I know, I know… but don't you want to know?" he asked her and Leland.

Sharona and Leland locked eyes and then looked back at Randy.

"Alright. Make it quick." Leland responded.

Standing with their backs to the trash can, they hid Randy from view as he reached into the container and pulled out the envelope.

Ripping it open, he read the results.

"Ho-ly moly! Look at this!" he exclaimed.

"What?" Leland asked as he and Sharona gathered around the test results.

"Oh my gawsh!" Sharona said, her mouth dropping open.

"Well, well…" Leland replied, sticking a toothpick in his mouth and rocking back and forth on his heels.

About this time, the Monks came walking back up with Jack walking beside them. They were all laughing.

Adrian walked up to Leland and said "Guess what! Dad's going to stay! Natalie's parents found us a condo just down the street we can rent. It's big enough for the whole gang!" he said, cheerfully, but then seeing the frozen looks on his friends' faces, his smile turned to nervousness.

"What?!" he said.

At first, there was no reply.

"You going to tell him?" Randy asked Leland.

"Nope. It was your idea." Leland responded.

"Tell me what? You guys are scaring me." Adrian replied.

Slowly, Randy raised the piece of paper in front of his face, showing the back side of it to Adrian.

Exasperated, Adrian tried to grab it from him. "I can't believe that you would dig into my garbage and get my mail! Give it here! I said it didn't matter!"

Randy jerked the paper away from Adrian's reach and bobbed and weaved as Adrian tried to grab it. "Technically, this is Jack's mail." He said.

"Whatever, it's not yours!" Adrian said, lunging at Disher.

Sharona stepped in between the two men and held Monk by the arms. "Adrian." She said. "You're our friend. You've been our friend for years. You may not want to know, but you need to know."

Adrian's expression turned grim and he looked over at Jack and then back at Sharona. Looking down at the ground, he said "Alright. Go ahead. You can tell me."

* * *

Jack Monk stood as stone faced as a criminal on judgment day awaiting the verdict as Randy read what was on the paper.

"Jack Monk. In the case of 58-year-old Adrian Monk … Jack…you ARE the father!" he announced.

The entire Monk clan began to cheer and joined together in one big four person group hug, laughing and crying at the same time as their burdens fell to the ground.

"I knew it! I knew it! Really, I did!" Adrian said, hugging his wife and looking lovingly at his dad.

Natalie just smirked and shook her head.

"So, we are full brothers after all! I'm so glad!" Ambrose replied.

"See, I told you that you were my son. A father knows! A father knows!" Jack exclaimed.

"Wait a minute, guys…guys…I'm not done…" Randy said, interrupting.

"Not done? What is it?" Adrian asked.

"That's not all that is here." Randy replied.

"What? Do we carry some genetic disease or something?" Jack asked.

"No. Nothing like that. Adrian. Ambrose, can you steady your father?" Randy asked.

"Sure. What's wrong, Randy?" Ambrose asked.

"Jack Monk. In the case of 35-year-old Sandra Oliver…you are ALSO the father!"

Ambrose and Adrian stepped back and looked at their father.

"We have a sister?" Adrian asked.

"Well…uh…" Jack said, sheepishly.

"But wait…there's more." Randy stated.

"More? What more?!" Adrian asked.

"In the case of 25-year-old Darrell Steinmann. You are ALSO the father!"

"Dad! What in the…" Ambrose exclaimed.

"But wait…!" Randy stated.

Adrian and Ambrose's eyes grew wide and they looked over at Jack with a look that demanded answers.

"Jackson Monk! Exactly how many wild oats did you sow while you were away?!" Adrian asked.

"I…uh…" Jack said, then looking up at his boys, he smiled a guilty smile, shrugged his shoulders and said, "What can I say? Oops!"

"Oops! You say oops!" Adrian said, walking towards his dad. Natalie intercepted him, wrapping her arm around his waist.

"Let your father be. It sounds like he needs to adjust to the news himself. There will be plenty of time to talk about it later." She said, as she walked him back towards the car.

"Oh, we're going to talk about it alright. I want to know exactly how many siblings I actually have!" Leland heard him say as Natalie pushed him into the passenger's seat.

"I'm going to take him to go check out the condo. It's about three blocks south on Lynn Shore Drive. 8350. You all are welcome to join us later for dinner." She said.

"Sounds good!" Leland asked, putting his hand on an embarrassed Jack Monk's shoulders.

"What are we having?" Randy asked.

"I don't know." Natalie said, starting the vehicle. "But I can assure you it won't be Chinese."


	29. Chapter 29

EPILOGUE

Leland Stottlemeyer rushed down the stairs and through the emaculate home that he enjoyed with his wife Trudy. He grabbed his jacket, and walked over to the kitchen table where she had poured him a cup of coffee to go and where she was sitting with a smile on her face reading the paper.

"Late for work again!" she stated, folding up the paper and leaning forward to give him a peck on the lips.

"Yeah. Someone kept me up too late last night." He replied, grabbing the coffee cup and giving her a wink before he exited the house.

* * *

The role of San Francisco Police Commissioner had long been one that he had coveted and it was truly an honor when he was named to the post. Many thought he would retire when he left. But now, a year and half since the day he quit his position to go save his best friend Adrian Monk, he was having the time of his life doing something that he never imagined himself doing.

As he entered the front office, the sign bearing the business's name went crooked on the wall as it was prone to do. Leland had grown to ignore it, knowing it would get straightened up soon enough any way.

Heather Monk sat at a desk with her son John Michael beside her, jumping up and down in a bouncing chair as he examined a solar system mobile that hung from a rod in front of it. Babies were not an unusual thing at the office since Adrian's two toddlers and the Disher's daughter Ophelia were frequent guests.

"Hey, Leland! Glad you're here."Heather said. " We got a call this morning from the chief of Police over at Lynn. Sounds like some big shot news anchor was murdered there yesterday afternoon and they wanted you guys to go over and take a look." She said, handing him a slip of paper.

"Has Monk seen this?" he asked.

"Yes. He, Natalie and Randy are in Adrian's office, doing a little pre-work and wanted me to send you in there as soon as you got in." she said.

"Great. Thanks for the message." He replied.

* * *

As he entered Adrian's office, he saw his three friends, now business partners, gathered around a glass story board. Adrian was connecting string between pictures and looked up, saw Leland enter and then smiled. He had completely healed up from the horrific attack from a year and a half prior and was as healthy and happy as Leland had ever seen him.

"Looks like we've got another high-profile case here, my friend." He said, informing Stottlemeyer about the specifics they knew thus far concerning the case.

"Victim is Diana Lange." Natalie said.

"Really! Oh man, she's big in the business. Any suspects?" Leland asked.

"Several. But here's the thing. She was found out on the deck of a yacht as if she had been sunbathing." Adrian replied.

"What's weird about that?" Leland asked.

"The woman was deathly afraid of the water." Natalie replied.

"She was murdered." Added Randy.

"It would appear so." Leland responded, stroking his trademark moustache."So, where do we come in?" he asked.

Adrian touched Leland on the shoulder and led him out the door. "Follow me. We'll take my SUV and we can talk on the road. Natalie, sweetheart, can you drive?"

"Sure, honey." She said, grabbing her purse and keys and walking out the door with the group.

.

As Heather sat at her desk, she looked at her watch counting the seconds until the door would open again.

"Three…Two… and One…" she said, out loud to herself.

Immediately, the front door opened again and Adrian walked briskly into the office. Walking over to the wall, he straightened the brand sign which read

_Enterprise Detective Agency_

_A venture of Detectives Stottlemeyer, Disher, Monk and Monk. _

_Established 2018._

_._

"We've got to get this thing fixed. A year of disorder is enough, don't you think?" Adrian asked.

"Sure thing, boss." Heather said, looking down at John Michael as Adrian walked back out the door.

"We'll get right on that, won't we Johnny?"


End file.
